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MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST 


BY 

JOHN  BIGELOW 


NEW.  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
MDCCCLXXXII 


COPYRIGHT  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNEKS  SONS 

1882 


Press  of  Francis  Hart  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE. 

FATHER  ALBERTINI'S  ADVENTURE  WITH  THE 
"MALE  MARITATE" — "!L  GUIDA  SPIRIT- 

UALE  "   OF    MOLINOS I-l6 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  JESUITS  COMBINE  WITH  Louis  XIV.  AGAINST 
MOLINOS  —  FATHER  SEGNERI  ENTERS  THE 
FIELD  AGAINST  THE  QUIETISTS  —  MOLINOS 
IMPRISONED  BY  THE  INQUISITION 17-28 

i 
CHAPTER  III. 

QUEEN  CHRISTINE  OF  SWEDEN  RENOUNCES  HER 
CROWN  AND  ENTERS  THE  ROMAN  CHURCH 
— SHE  TAKES  MOLINOS  FOR  HER  SPIRITUAL 
DIRECTOR 29-43 

CHAPTER  IV. 

FATHER  MABILLON,  THE  BENEDICTINE,  AT  ROME 

—  FATHER  PETRUCCI  AND  THE  INQUISITION..      44-55 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  TRIAL  AND  CONDEMNATION  OF  MOLINOS.  . .      56-68 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  PROCEEDINGS  AT  THE  SENTENCE,  AS  RE- 
PORTED BY  THE  HOLY  OFFICE 69-80 

CHAPTER  VII. 
DID  MOLINOS  ABJURE?  —  His  TRIAL  A  MOCKERY      81-88 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FURTHER  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  QUIETISTS  — 
THE  SECRECY  OF  THE  CONFESSIONAL  VIO- 
LATED— THE  POPE  DISCIPLINED  FOR  SUS- 
PECTED QUIETISM — THE  DEATH  OF  MOLINOS  89-106 


APPENDIX. 

A.  — LETTER  FROM  THE  CARDINAL  CARACCIOLI 
TO  POPE  INNOCENT  XI.  ON  THE  PROGRESS 
OF  QUIETISM  IN  NAPLES 107-110 

B. — CIRCULAR    LETTER    FROM    CARDINAL  CIBO 

AGAINST    THE    QUIETISTS III-II2 

C.  —  BULL  OF  INNOCENT   XI.   AGAINST  MICHEL 

DE  MOLINOS  AND  HIS  DOCTRINES 113-127 


MO  LINOS    THE  QU I  EXIST 


MOLINOS    THE    QUIETIST. 


CHAPTER     I. 

Father  Albertini's  adventure  with  the  Male  Maritate — 
//  Guida  Spirituale  of  Molinos. 

IT  will  soon  be  quite  two  hundred  years  since  an 
obscure  Neapolitan  priest,  named  Albertini,  came 
up  to  Rome  with  the  special  purpose  of  getting  the 
ear  of  the  Christian  world  to  certain  theological  views 
more  or  less  peculiar  to  himself.  He  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  the  friend,  or  a  dependent,  of  Monsignor 
Cibo,  the  Cardinal  Secretary  of  State,  which  was  worth 
to  him  at  least  a  lodging  in  the  Vatican. 

Albertini  was  provincial  in  his  training  and  man- 
ners, and  withal  was  possessed  with  the  idea  that  the 
world  could  not  get  on  well  without  the  aid  of  the 
treatise  on  theology  with  which  he  was  armed,  but  for 
the  printing  of  which  he  had  failed  to  secure  the  neces- 
sary permission  of  the  Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace. 
To  accomplish  his  benevolent  purpose  without  the 
required  license,  he  procured  type  and  a  printing- 
press, 


2  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

press,  to  be  brought  to  his  apartment,  which  chanced 
to  be  over  that  occupied  by  the  Master  of  the  Sacred 
Palace,  and  in  due  time  set  his  press  to  work.  The 
noise  it  made  was  so  unusual,  that  it  was  not  long  in 
attracting  attention.  The  offense  was,  of  course, 
detected  and  reported  to  the  Pope,1  and  orders  imme- 
diately issued  for  Albertini  and  his  theology  to  quit 
Rome.  The  Cardinal  Secretary  of  State,  however, 
thinking  that  nothing  more  would  probably  be  heard 
of  the  press  or  of  its  proprietor,  did  not  press  the 
execution  of  the  Pope's  orders.  While  thus  lingering 
at  sufferance  in  Rome,  and  on  one  of  the  hottest  days 
of  August  in  the  year  of  grace,  1685,  Albertini 
observed  a  squad  of  the  pontifical  police  taking  pos- 
session of  the  entry  to  his  domicil.  He  not  unnat- 
urally hurried  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  in  quest 
of  him.  Though  at  the  moment  of  the  discovery 
stripped  to  his  shirt  and  drawers,  he  had  such  a  whole- 
some dread  of  a  Roman  prison  that,  without  stopping 
to  perfect  his  toilet,  he  fled  up  the  stairs,  crawled  out 
on  the  roof,  and  took  refuge  in  the  first  opening  that 
offered  him  a  chance  of  escape  or  concealment.  It 
proved  to  conduct  to  the  interior  of  a  convent  of 
Repenties — a  sort  of  closed  house  appropriated  to  the 
seclusion  of  women  of  equivocal  characters,  donne  male 
maritate.  Now  it  so  happened  that  among  the  recent 
additions  to  this  frail  circle  was  a  damsel  of  great 

1  Clement  X.,  elected  1670,  died  1676. 

beauty, 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  3 

beauty, —  una  bellissima,  as  she  was  styled  by  the 
chronicler  of  this  incident, — with  whom  Albertini  had 
a  slight  acquaintance.  The  inmates  of  the  house,  see- 
ing a  man  descending  among  them  in  such  guise,  and 
in  defiance  of  the  terrible  excommunications  always 
impending  over  male  intruders,  took  it  for  granted 
that  it  was  the  bellissima  who  had  attracted  him. 
Whether  impelled  by  jealousy  or  consternation, — for 
on  this  point  history  is  silent, — they  rang  the  convent 
bell,  and  in  a  moment  poor  Albertini,  in  his  hasty 
toilet,  was  surrounded  by  a  throng  of  curious  and  very 
noisy,  not  to  say  indignant,  women.  In  spite  of  his 
vehement  protestations  that  he  meant  no  mischief,  it 
was  some  time  before  the  alarm  of  the  caged  birds 
could  be  quieted.  They  finally  accepted  his  explana- 
tions, however,  and  allowed  him  to  return  to  his  quar- 
ters, which  he  thought  it  prudent  to  exchange  without 
unnecessary  delay  for  others  outside  of  the  Roman 
territory,1  and  beyond  the  range  of  the  papal  police. 

Now  it  so  happened  that  the  sbirri  who  so  fright- 
ened Father  Albertini  from  his  proprieties  were  not  in 
pursuit  of  him  at  all,  but  of  a  Spanish  priest  who  stood 
charged  with  the  grave  and,  in  the  city  of  the  Caesars, 
far  less  tolerable  crime  of  heresy,  and  who  chanced 
to  occupy  an  apartment  immediately  opposite  to  his 
own.  This  alleged  heretic  was  Michel  de  Molinos,  a 
gentleman  of  Spanish  extraction,  who  was  just  then  one 

1  Correspondance  intdite  de  Mabillon  et  de  Montfaucon 
avec  I'ltalie,  v.  i.,  p.  107. 

of 


4  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

of  the  greatest  ecclesiastical  lions  in  the  papal  domin- 
ions, and  who  had  been  actively  engaged  for  many 
years  at  Rome  in  sowing  the  seeds  of  one  of  the  most 
formidable  schisms  that  ever  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
Latin  church — a  schism  which,  only  a  few  years  later, 
was  to  array  against  each  other,  in  open  and  bitter 
hostility,  the  two  most  illustrious  prelates  of  the  Galli- 
can  church,  and  which  twice  seriously  threatened  to 
interrupt  the  friendly  relations  of  the  French  and 
pontifical  governments. 

Molinos  was  of  a  noble  Spanish  family  of  Minozzi,  in 
the  diocese  of  Saragossa,  in  Aragon,  where  he  was  born 
December  21,  1627.  He  took  his  theological  degree 
at  Coimbra,  and,  after  a  career  of  some  distinction 
in  his  own  country,  went  to  Rome,  where  he  speedily 
acquired  a  wonderful  popularity  as  a  spiritual  director. 
In  1675  he  published  a  little  book  entitled  //  Guida 
Spirituale?  The  substance  of  its  teachings  was  that 

1  //  Guida  Spirituale  was  first  in  1699  without  any  publisher's 

printed  at  Rome,  in  Italian,  in  imprint,  or  even   the  place  of 

1675;    it  was  afterward    pub-  its  publication,  entitled,  "The 

lished    in   Spanish   at   Madrid  Spiritual    Guide    which    disen- 

in   1676,  then  at  Saragossa  in  tangles  the  soul,  and  brings  it 

1677,    and    then   in    Seville   in  by  the  inward -way  to  the  getting 

1685.     Bernino,  Hist,  di  Tutte  of  perfect  contemplation  and  the 

I'  Heresie,  v.  4.  This  work  went  rich  treasure  of  internal  peace. 

through  twenty  editions  in  dif-  Written  by  Dr.   Michel  Moli- 

ferent  languages  in  the  space  nos,  Driest.       Translated  from 

of   six    years,    1674-1680.     An  the  Italian  copy." 
English   translation    appeared 

the 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST.  5 

the  soul  of  man  is  the  temple  and  abode  of  God,  which 
we  ought,  therefore,  to  keep  as  clean  and  pure  from 
worldliness,  and  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  the  pride  of 
life  as  possible. 

The  true  end  of  human  life  ought  to  be,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  attainment  of  perfection.  In  the  progress 
to  this  result,  Molinos  distinguishes  two  principal 
stages  or  degrees,  the  first  attainable  by  meditation,  the 
second,  and  highest,  by  contemplation.  In  the  first  stage 
the  attention  is  fixed  upon  the  capital  truths  of  religion, 
upon  all  the  circumstances  under  which  religion  has 
been  commended  to  us,  objections  are  wrestled  with,  and 
doubts  which  might  trouble  the  soul  one  by  one  are 
resolved  and  banished.  In  this  stage  it  is  the  reason, 
mainly,  that  acts,  and  often,  if  not  altogether,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  will  or  the  natural  man.  One,  however, 
does  not  reach  the  higher  stage  of  devotion  till  the  soul 
ceases  to  struggle,  till  it  has  no  farther  need  of  proofs 
or  reflection;  till  it  contemplates  the  truth  in  silence 
and  repose.  This  is  what  is  termed  retirement  of  the 
soul  and  perfect  contemplation,  in  which  the  soul  does 
not  reason  nor  reflect,  neither  about  God  nor  itself, 
but  passively  receives  the  impressions  of  celestial  light, 
undisturbed  by  the  world  or  its  works.  Whenever  the 
soul  can  be  lifted  up  to  this  state,  it  desires  nothing, 
not  even  its  own  salvation,  and  fears  nothing,  not 
even  hell.  It  becomes  indifferent  to  the  use  of  the 
sacraments  and  to  all  the  practices  of  sensible  devo- 
tion, having  transcended  the  sphere  of  their  efficacy. 

"The 


6  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

"  The  Divine  Majesty  knows  very  well  that  it  is  not 
by  the  means  of  one's  own  ratiocination  or  industry 
that  a  soul  draws  near  to  Him  and  understands  the 
divine  truths,  but  rather  by  silent  and  humble  resig- 
nation. The  patriarch  Noah  gave  a  great  instance  of 
this,  who,  after  he  had  been  by  all  men  reckoned  a 
fool,  floating  in  the  middle  of  a  raging  sea  wherewith 
the  whole  world  was  overflowed,  without  sails  or  oars, 
and  environed  by  wild  beasts  that  were  shut  up  in  the 
ark,  walked  by  faith  alone,  not  knowing  nor  under- 
standing what  God  had  a  mind  to  do  with  him."  ' 
"Consider  the  blinded  beast  that  turns  the  wheel  of 
the  mill,  which,  though  it  see  not,  neither  know  what 
it  does,  yet  does  a  great  work  in  grinding  the  corn ; 
and  although  it  taste  not  of  it,  yet  its  master  receives 
the  fruit  and  tastes  of  the  same.  Who  would  not 
think,  during  so  long  a  time  that  the  seed  lies  in  the 
earth,  but  that  it  were  lost  ?  Yet  afterwards  it  is  seen 
to  spring  up,  grow,  and  multiply.  God  does  the  same 
with  the  soul  when  He  deprives  it  of  consideration  and 
ratiocination.  Whilst  it  thinks  it  does  nothing  and 
is,  in  a  manner,  undone,  in  times  it  comes  to  itself 
again,  improved,  disengaged,  and  perfect,  having  never 
hoped  for  so  much  favor."2  Prayer  he  calls  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit, —  prayer  frequent  and  prolonged.  "It 
concerns  thee  only,"  he  adds,  "to  prepare  thy  heart 

1  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  n.     Our  citations  are  made  from 
the  English  version  of  1699.     2  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  12. 

like 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  7 

like  clean  paper  wherein  the  Divine  Wisdom  may  im- 
print characters  to  His  own  liking." 

Those  who  endeavor  to  acquire  virtues  by  much 
abstinence,  maceration  of  the  body,  mortification  of 
the  senses,  rigorous  penances,  wearing  sack-cloth, 
chastising  the  flesh  by  discipline,  going  in  quest  of  sen- 
sible affections  and  fervent  sentiments,  thinking  to  find 
God  in  them,  such  Molinos  considered  were  in  what  he 
termed  the  external  way,  the  way  of  beginners,  which, 
though  to  such  it  might  be  useful,  never  would  conduct 
them  to  perfection,  "  nor  so  much  as  one  step  towards 
it,  as  experience  shows  in  many,  who,  after  fifty  years 
of  this  external  exercise,  are  void  of  God,  and  full  of 
themselves  (of  spiritual  pride),  having  nothing  of  a 
spiritual  man  but  the  name."1 

"  The  truly  spiritual  men,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
those  whom  the  Lord,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  has  called 
from,  that  outward  way  in  which  they  had  been  wont 
to  exercise  themselves  ;  who  had  retired  into  the  inte- 
rior part  of  their  souls  ;  who  had  resigned  themselves 
into  the  hand  of  God,  totally  putting  off  and  forgetting 
themselves,  and  always  going  with  an  elevated  spirit  to 
the  presence  of  the  Lord,  by  means  of  pure  faith,  with- 
out image,  form,  or  figure,  but  with  great  assurance 
founded  in  tranquillity  and  rest  internal.  These  blessed 
and  sublimated  souls  take  no  pleasure  in  anything  of 
the  world,  but  in  contempt  of  it,  in  being  alone,  for- 

1  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  77. 

saken 


8  MO  LINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

saken  and  forgotten  by  everybody,  keeping  always  in 
their  hearts  a  great  lowliness  and  contempt  of  them- 
selves;  always  humbled  in  the  depths  of  their  own 
unworthiness  and  vileness.  In  the  same  manner  they 
are  always  quiet,  serene,  and  even-minded,  whether 
under  extraordinary  graces  and  favor,  or  under  the 
most  rigorous  and  bitter  torments.  No  news  makes 
them  afraid.  No  success  makes  them  glad.  Tribula- 
tions never  disturb  them,  nor  the  interior,  continual 
Divine  communations  make  them  vain  and  conceited  ; 
they  always  remain  full  of  holy  and  filial  fear,  in  a 
wonderful  peace,  constancy,  and  serenity."1 

"  The  Lord,"  he  says,  "  has  repose  nowhere  but  in 
quiet  souls,  and  in  those  in  which  the  fire  of  tribula- 
tion and  temptation  hath  burned  up  the  dregs  of  pas- 
sions, and  with  the  bitter  water  of  afflictions  hath 
washed  off  the  filthy  spots  of  inordinate  appetites ;  in  a 
word,  this  Lord  reposes  only  where  quiet  reigns  and 
self-love  is  banished.*  *  *  * 

"  Afflict  not  thyself  too  much,  and  with  inquietude, 
because  these  sharp  martyrdoms  may  continue;  perse- 
vere in  humility,  and  go  not  out  of  thyself  to  seek  aid  ; 
for  all  thy  good  consists  in  being  silent,  suffering  and 
holding  patience  with  rest  and  resignation ;  then  wilt 
thou  find  the  Divine  Strength  to  overcome  so  hard  a 
warfare.  He  is  within  thee  that  fighteth  for  thee  ;  and 
He  is  Strength  itself.3  *  *  * 

The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  76-80.    2  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  91. 
3  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  112-113. 

"By 


MO  LINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 


"  By  the  way  of  nothing  thou  must  come  to  lose 
thyself  in  God  (which  is  the  last  degree  of  perfection), 
and  happy  wilt  thou  be  if  thou  canst  so  lose  thyself. 
In  this  same  shop  of  nothing,  simplicity  is  made, 
interior  and  infused  recollection  is  possessed,  quiet  is 
obtained,  and  the  heart  is  cleansed  from  all  imperfec- 
tion."1 

There  is  nothing  in  these  doctrines  of  passivity 
which  had  not  been  taught  by  many  of  the  most  highly 


1  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  157. 

La  Bruyere  left  behind  him 
a  little  treatise,  entitled  Dia- 
logues sur  le  Quiftisme,  now  de- 
servedly forgotten.  The  only 
thing  in  it  worthy  of  its  author's 
wit  is  a  caricature  of  this  doc- 
trine of  quiet  and  passivity,  in 
a  supposed  quietistic  version  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  sup- 
posed to  be  brought  by  a  peni- 
tent to  the  director  under 
whose  instruction  she  has  been 
trained,  and  whose  approval  of 
it  is  requested. 

Director:  Speak,  my  child; 
your  motive  is  praiseworthy. 

Penitent :  Listen,  now,  to  my 
composition. 

Director :  1  am  attentive. 

Penitent :  O  God,  who  art 
no  more  in  Heaven  than  on 
Earth  or  in  Hell,  who  art 


everywhere,  I  neither  wish  nor 
desire  your  name  to  be  sancti- 
fied. You  know  what  is  suita- 
ble for  us,  and  if  You  wish  it  to 
be  it  will  be  without  my  wish- 
ing or  desiring  it ;  whether 
Your  Kingdom  comes  or  not  is 
to  me  indifferent.  Neither  do 
I  ask  that  Your  will  be  done  on 
Earth  as  it  is  done  in  Heaven. 
It  will  be  done  in  spite  of  my 
wishes,  and  it  is  for  me  to  be 
resigned.  Give  us  all  our  daily 
bread  which  is  Your  grace,  or 
do  not  give  it ;  I  neither  desire 
to  have  it  or  to  be  deprived 
of  it.  So  if  You  pardon  my 
crimes  as  I  have  pardoned  those 
who  have  wronged  me,  so 
much  the  better.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  You  punish  me  by 
damnation,  still  so  much  the 
better,  since  such  is  Your  will. 

esteemed 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 


esteemed  mystical  writers  of  the  Church,  by  St.  Bona- 
ventura,  St.  Theresa,  John  of  the  Cross,  the  Baroness  de 
Chantal,  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  and  others,  some  of  whom 
indeed  had  been  canonized  as  saints.1  The  doctrines 
were  presented  in  a  simple  and  unaffected  style,  and 
the  book,  as  well  as  its  author,  acquired  a  prompt  and 
extraordinary  popularity.  The  Spiritual  Guide  received 


Finally,  my  God,  I  am  too  en- 
tirely abandoned  to  Your  will 
to  ask  You  to  deliver  me  from 
temptations  and  from  evil. — 
Dialogues  Posthumes  du  Sieur 
de  la  Bruyere  sur  le  Quittisme, 

P-  193- 

1  Corbinelli,  the  private  sec- 
retary of  Marie  de  Medicis,  and 
one  of  the  correspondents  of 
Madame  de  SeVigne",  in  a  let- 
ter dated  Oct.  24,  1687,  says  : 

"  I  am  now  occupied  svith  the 
propositions  of  Molinos,  and 
as  I  have  been  assured  that 
they  are  in  conformity  with  the 
teachings  of  St.  Theresa  and 
other  mystics,  I  have  read  the 
Chdteau  de  I' Ante  and  her  other 
works,  and  the  result  is  that  I 
have  met  there  almost  all  the 
doctrines  of  the  condemned 
priest." — Lettres  de  Madame  de 
Sevigne',  de  sa  famille  et  de  ses 
amis.  1822.  Vol.  8,  p.  414. 


A  few  weeks  later,  Nov.  24, 
1687,  Corbinelli  writes  again  : 

"  I  still  passionately  love 
jurisprudence,  but  that  has  not 
prevented  my  reading  all  the 
works  of  St.  Theresa,  in  which, 
I  think,  I  have  found  all  the 
propositions  of  Molinos.  I 
have  made  a  collection  of  Chris- 
tian or  mystic  maxims  of  this 
saint,  and  have  conversed 
about  them  with  some  very, 
very  learned  Cartesians,  who 
all  believe  that  the  equivocal 
expressions  which  lean  most  to 
paradox  bring  their  authors  to 
the  stake  according  as  their 
judges  are  more  or  less  igno- 
rant. Now,  it  is  known  for 
certain  that  those  who  compose 
the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition 
are  ignorant  in  a  supreme 
degree.  Cardinal  Petrucci 
waits  for  them  under  the  elm, 
and  they  dare  not  attack  him, 
the 


MO  LINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 


the  formal  approbation  of  five  famous  doctors,  four  of 
them  Inquisitors  and  one  a  Jesuit,  and  within  six  years 
passed  through  twenty  editions,  in  most  European 
tongues. 

Its  author's  acquaintance  and  friendship  was  sought 
by  people  in  the  greatest  credit,  not  only  at  Rome,  but 


because  he  has  talent  and 
learning,  joined  to  great  dig- 
nity. '  St.  Francis  of  Sales  said 
the  good  pleasure  of  God  is  the 
sovereign  object  of  the  indif- 
ferent soul,  so  that  it  would 
prefer  Hell  if  that  were  God's 
will,  than  Paradise  without  the 
will  of  God.  It  would  even 
prefer  Hell  to  Paradise,  if  it 
knew  that  such  was  only  a  little 
more  the  good  pleasure  of  God, 
that  is,  as  he  explains  himself, 
if  his  damnation  was  a  little 
more  agreeable  to  God  than 
his  salvation. 

The  Baroness  Chantal,  a  dis- 
ciple of  St.  Francis,  said  : 

"If  it  please  God  to  make 
my  abode  in  the  hells,  I  will 
be  content  with  it." 

A.  de  Foligny  said :  "Though 
I  should  be  damned,  I  would 
never  cease  repenting  and 

I  In  this  Corbinelli  was  unfortunately 
mistaken.  Petrucci  was  not  only  com- 
pelled by  the  Inquisition  to  abjure,  but 


stripping  myself  of  everything 
for  the  love  of  God.  If,  O  my 
God,  You  must  cast  me  into 
hell,  delay  no  longer." 

Catherine  of  Sienna  :  "  If  it 
were  possible  to  feel  all  the 
torments  of  the  demons  and  of 
damned  souls,  nevertheless  I 
could  never  call  them  torments, 
so  much  happiness  would  pure 
love  yield  me." 

The  Mystics  sustained  these 
paradoxes  upon  Biblical  au- 
thority, quoting  St.  Paul  (Rom. 
9:3)  who  says  :  ' '  For  I  could 
wish  that  myself  were  accursed 
from  Christ  for  my  brethren,  my 
kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh, ' ' 
and  Moses  (Exodus,  cA.j2J,\vho 
says  to  the  Lord,  "Yet  now  if 
Thou  wilt,  forgive  their  sin ; 
and  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee, 
out  of  the  book  which  thou 
hast  written." 

was  forbidden  to  reside  within  his 
bishopric,  which  he  finally  resigned. 


12  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

in  other  parts  of  Europe  by  correspondence.  Among 
his  followers  were  three  fathers  of  the  Oratoire,  who 
soon  afterwards  received  cardinal's  hats,  and  even  the 
popes  who  successively  occupied  the  pontifical  chair 
during  his  residence  in  Rome  took  particular  notice 
of  him.  The  Cardinal  Odescalchi  was  no  sooner 
raised  to  the  pontificate  as  Innocent  XL,  than  he  pro- 
vided Molinos  with  lodgings  at  the  Vatican,  and  such 
was  his  esteem  for  him  that  he  is  said  to  have  formed 
the  purpose  of  making  him  a  cardinal,  and  to  have 
actually  seJected  him  for  a  time  as  his  spiritual 
director.1 

With  such  evidences  of  protection  in  high  quarters, 
and  with  so  much  in  his  theology  of  unworldliness 
and  devoutness  to  commend  it  to  the  understandings 
as  well  as  to  the  hearts  of  the  faithful,  the  popularity 
of  Molinos  grew  apace.  He  seemed  to  them  another 
St.  Paul,  sent  to  emancipate  them  from  the  thrall  of 
image-manufacturers  and  an  idolatrous  and  costly 
ceremonial ;  to  bring  them  nearer  to  God  and  farther 
from  priestcraft  and  obscurantism.  He  was  neither 
greedy  nor  ambitious.  He  sought  no  place,  nor  would 
he  accept  any, — not  even  a  cardinal's  hat.  A  priest 
at  Rome  without  ambition  was  such  an  unusual  phe- 

1  Journal  de  M.  I' Abb£  Dor-  de  la  Constitution  Unigenitus, 
sanne,  etc.,  contenant  I'histoire  Vol.  i,  p.  20.  Madame  Guyon ; 
et  les  anecdotes  de  ce  que  s'est  sa  vie,  sa  doctrine,  et  son  in- 
pass^  de  plus  inttressant,  a  fluence,  par  L.  Guerrier.  Paris, 
Rome  et  en  France,  dans  I 'affaire  1881,  p.  131. 

nomenon 


MOL1NOS   THE   QUIETIST.  13 

nomenon  that  it  alone  would  have  sufficed  to  make 
him  famous.  Every  one  who  was  sincerely  devout,  or 
who  wished  to  be  thought  so,  adopted  "the  Method 
of  Molinos,"  and  many  who  wished  promotion  at  Rome 
saw  no  surer  nor  speedier  way  to  it  than  to  establish 
good  relations  with  him  and  his  friends.  Queen  Chris- 
tine, of  Sweden,  then  the  lioness  of  Rome,  was  under 
his  direction,  and  made  his  gifts  and  piety  a  favorite 
theme  of  her  extensive  correspondence.  Cardinal 
d'Estrees,  who  represented  Louis  XIV.  and  his  govern- 
ment at  the  pontifical  court,  and  who  was  one  of  the  most 
accomplished  courtiers  of  his  time,  felt  it  to  be  worth 
his  while  to  identify  himself  with  the  new  departure, 
and  to  put  Molinos  in  correspondence  with  important 
people  in  France.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  procure 
the  translation  into  the  Italian  tongue  of  a  book  written 
a  few  years  before  The  Spiritual  Guide  by  a  blind 
French  clergyman,1  favoring  the  doctrines  of  Quietism. 
About  the  same  time  a  Father  Petrucci  wrote  many 
letters  and  one  or  more  treatises  in  favor  of  the  con- 
templative life  as  taught  by  Molinos,  for  the  special 

1  The  title  of  this  book  was  published  at  Venice   in   1675. 

Oraziono  di  Pure  Fede.     It  was  It  finally  fell  under  the  censure 

written  in  French,   and  origi-  of   the    Inquisition,    and    was 

nally     published    in     France,  condemned  by  Pope  Innocent 

with  the  approbation  of  some  XL,    in    common  with    many 

of  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  other  books  savoring  of  Quiet- 

and  of  Cardinal  Bona,  in  1669.  ism,  in  1688. 
The     Italian    translation    was 

edification 


I4  MO  LINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

edification  of  nuns.  Bishop  Gilbert  Burnet,  who 
chanced  to  be  in  Italy  during  the  winter  of  1685, 
wrote  home  "  that  the  new  Method  of  Molinos  dotli  so 
much  prevail  at  Naples  that  it  is  believed  he  hath 
above  20,000  followers  in  the  city.  He  hath  writ  a 
book  which  is  intitled  //  Guida  Spirituale,  which  is  a 
short  abstract  of  the  Mystical  Divinity  ;  the  substance 
of  the  whole  is  reduced  to  this,  that,  in  our  prayers 
and  other  devotions,  the  best  methods  are  to  retire  the 
mind  from  all  gross  images,  and  so  to  form  an  act  of 
Faith,  and  thereby  to  present  ourselves  before  God, 
and  then  to  sink  into  a  silence  and  cessation  of  new 
acts,  and  to  let  God  act  upon  us,  and  so  to  follow  his 
conduct.  This  way  he  prefers  to  the  multiplication  of 
many  new  acts  and  different  forms  of  devotion,  and  he 
makes  small  account  of  corporal  austerities,  and  reduces 
all  the  exercises  of  religion  to  this  simplicity  of  mind. 
He  thinks  this  is  not  only  to  be  proposed  to  such  as 
live  in  religious  houses,  but  even  to  secular  persons, 
and  by  this  he  hath  proposed  a  great  reformation  of 
men's  minds  and  manners.  He  hath  many  priests  in 
Italy,  but  chiefly  in  Naples,  that  dispose  those  who 
confess  themselves  to  them  to  follow  his  methods.  The 
Jesuits  have  set  themselves  much  against  this  conduct 
as  foreseeing  it  may  weaken  the  empire  that  super- 
stition hath  over  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  that  it  may 
make  religion  become  a  more  plain  and  simple  thing, 
and  may  also  open  the  door  to  enthusiasms.  They 
also  pretend  that  his  conduct  is  factious  and  seditious ; 

that 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  15 

that  this  may  breed  a  schism  in  the  Church.  And 
because  he  saith  in  some  places  of  his  book  that  the 
mind  may  rise  up  to  such  simplicity  in  its  acts  that  it 
may  rise  in  some  of  its  devotions  to  God  immediately, 
without  contemplating  the  humanity  of  Christ,  they 
have  accused  him  as  intending  to  lay  aside  the  doctrine 
of  Christ's  humanity,  tho'  it  is  plain  that  he  speaks 
only  of  the  purity  of  some  single  arts.  Upon  all  those 
heads  they  have  set  themselves  much  against  Molinos, 
and  they  have  also  pretended  that  some  of  his  disciples 
have  infused  it  into  their  penitents  that  they  may  go 
and  communicate  as  they  find  themselves  disposed 
without  going  first  to  confession,  which  they  thought 
weakened  much  the  yoke  by  which  the  priests  subdue 
the  consciences  of  the  people  to  their  conduct.  Yet 
he  was  much  supported,  both  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  and  Sicily.  He  hath  also  many  friends  and 
followers  at  Rome.  So  the  Jesuits,  as  a  provincial  of 
the  Order  assured  me,  finding  they  could  not  ruin  him 
by  their  own  force,  got  a  great  king,  that  is  now  ex- 
tremely in  the  interests  of  their  Order,  to  interpose, 
and  to  represent  to  the  Pope  the  danger  of  such  inno- 
vations. It  is  certain  the  Pope  understands  the 
matter  very  little,  and  that  he  is  possessed  of  a  great 
opinion  of  Molinos'  sanctity ;  yet,  upon  the  complaints 
of  some  cardinals  that  seconded  the  zeal  of  that  king, 
he  and  some  of  his  followers  were  clapt  into  the  Inqui- 
sition, where  they  have  been  now  some  months,  but 
still  they  are  well  used,  which  is  believed  to  flow  from 

the 


16  MOLINOS    THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

the  good  opinion  that  the  Pope  hath  of  him,  who  saith 
still  that  '  he  may  err,  yet  he  is  still  a  good  man.'"1 

I  Some  letters  containing  the  Italy,  etc.,  written  by  G.  Bur- 
account  of  what  seemed  most  net,  D.  D.,  to  T.  H.  R.  B.,  etc. 
remarkable  in  Switzerland,  Amsterdam,  1686.  Letter  4. 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Jesuits  combine  against  Molinos  —  Father  Segneri  enters  the  field 
against  the  Quietists — Molinos  imprisoned  by  the  Inquisition. 

E  secret  of  the  extraordinary  popularity  of  Moli- 
nos  was  betrayed  by  some  of  its  inconvenient 
consequences.  While  his  disciples  became  usually 
more  strict  in  their  manner  of  life,  more  retired,  more 
devout  and  indifferent  to  the  world,  they  showed  a 
corresponding  indifference  to  the  exterior  rites  of  the 
church;  they  were  seen  less  frequently  at  mass,  made 
little  account  of  corporeal  austerities,  chaplets,  and 
relics,  neglected  the  confessional  and  pilgrimages,  and 
were  growing  less  lavish  in  their  expenditures  for 
masses  for  their  deceased  friends  and  kindred. 

This  was  a  state  of  things  which  could  not  be  per- 
mitted to  go  on  indefinitely.  If  the  external  acts  of 
devotion  were  to  be  slighted  ;  if  transgressors  were  to 
go  directly  to  their  Maker  with  their  budget  of  sins  for 
forgiveness  or  indulgences,  and  if  they  had  no  occasion 
to  leave  their  rooms  to  ask  intercession  for  the  deliver- 
ance 

2 


18  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

ance  of  the  souls  of  their  deceased  relatives  from  pur- 
gatory; if  the  Confessional  with  its  perquisites  and  its 
precious  secrets  was  to  be  closed,  how  was  the  Church 
to  be  supported  ;  how  were  they  to  know  the  secrets  of 
foreign  cabinets ;  who  were  to  supply  the  cardinals  with 
their  princely  revenues ;  who  build  costly  temples ; 
how  support  the  armies  of  the  Pope  and  the  Inquisi- 
tion ?  This  was  a  practical  aspect  of  the  situation, 
which  seems  first  to  have  presented  itself  to  the  Jesuits, 
who  were  then  as  now  the  driving-wheel  of  the  Roman 
Curia.  They  saw  at  once  that  Quietism  or  Romanism 
must  go  to  the  wall ;  that  there  was  not  room  in 
Europe  for  both;  and  they  were  not  long  in  deciding, 
so  far  as  it  depended  upon  them,  which  should  stay  and 
which  should  go.  They  employed  all  the  power  and 
artifice  of  the  Order  to  alarm  foreign  sovereigns,  and 
induce  them  to  believe  it  their  duty  to  interfere  at 
Rome  in  behalf  of  the  Church,  whose  interests  were 
being  compromised  by  Molinos  ;  they  branded  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Spanish  mystic  with  bad  names,  the 
readiest  weapon  of  malevolence,  and  set  to  work 
systematically  to  denounce  him  and  his  doctrine,  in 
official  as  well  as  private  correspondence,  and  through 
the  press.  In  the  selection  of  the  person  who  was  to  set 
their  squadrons  in  the  field,  they  showed  great  sagacity. 
Father  Paul  Segneri1  was  then  the  foremost 

Father  Segneri  was  born  novitiate  with  the  Jesuits  in  his 
in  Nettuno,  on  the  aist  of  thirteenth  year ;  was  ordained 
March,  1624  ;  commenced  his  priest  at  twenty-nine  ;  was  then 

preacher 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  19 

preacher  among  the  Jesuits  in  Italy.  In  the  midst  of 
his  labors  as  a  missionary  in  the  northern  part  of  Italy, 
he  received  from  his  chief  at  Rome  a  bundle  of  Quiet- 
istic  books,  with  directions  to  prepare  an  antidote  to 
them.  In  1680,  and  just  five  years  after  //  Guida 
Spirituale  first  appeared,  Father  Segneri  wrote  a  small 
volume  at  Florence,  entitled  "  Concordia  tralafatica  e 
la  Quiete"  (Harmony  between  effort  and  Quiet,  or 
works  and  faith). 

Father  Segneri  was  much  too  discreet  in  his  work 
to  attempt  to  depreciate  the  contemplative  life.  On 
the  contrary,  he  began  by  artfully  magnifying  it,  and 
censuring  those  who  would  make  light  of  it,  but  he 
insisted  that  few  were  capable  of  leading  it,  and  none 
should  aspire  to  it  but  those  specially  called  to  it  by 
God.  "These  spiritual  fathers,"  he  said,  "expose 
souls  to  much  risk.  They  should  consider  that  out  of 
so  many  people  Moses  only  was  called  into  the  thick 
darkness  where  God  was."  '  "As  the  waters  go  down 
from  the  mountains  by  the  valleys,"  or  middle  way 
(Psalms,  104-8),  so  the  way  of  the  saints  is ;  now 
meditation,  now  contemplation,  as  they  shall  find  most 

sent  to  teach  in  one  of  the  served  by  the  press,  are  em- 
Jesuit  schools  at  Pestoia,  bodied  in  eleven  octavo  vol- 
where  he  remained  until  1665,  umes  of  sermons,  of  so  much 
when  he  commenced  mission  merit  that  they  still  hold  a  re- 
work in  the  northern  part  of  spectable  place  in  the  religious 
Italy,  and  continued  there  till  literature  of  the  Latin  Church. 
1692.  The  fruits  of  his  labors,  '  Concordia  trafatka  e  Quiete, 
so  far  as  they  could  be  pre-  p.  9. 

expedient." 


20  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

expedient."  He  insists  that  the  state  of  contemplation 
can  never  be  a  fixed  or  permanent  state,  and  objects 
therefore  to  closing  the  middle  way,  as  some  modern 
writers  have  proposed,  who  teach  that,  once  called  by 
God  to  Contemplation,  we  should  never  return  to 
Meditation. 

Segneri  does  not  mention  Molinos,  nor  any  other 
Quietist  by  name,  in  this  book,  but  throughout  seems 
anxious  to  have  his  controversy,  if  possible,  not  with 
them,  only  with  their  doctrines,  and  to  make  no  more 
bad  blood  than  was  necessary.  The  tenderness  with 
which  the  Quietists  are  approached  by  Segneri  shows 
to  what  extent  their  power  was  recognized  at  Rome. 

But,  cautious  and  forbearing  as  he  was,  Father 
Segneri  was  not  long  in  discovering  that  he  had  been 
putting  his  hand  into  a  hornet's  nest.  His  biographer 
tells  us  that  no  one  would  believe  what  a  mass  of 
anonymous  letters  he  received,  teeming  with  abuse  and 
fearful  threats. 

The  same  year  that  the  Concordia  was  written, 
Segneri  published  a  "letter  in  reply  to  the  exceptions 
which  a  champion  of  the  modern  Quietists  has  taken 
to  an  assailant  of  their  method  of  prayer." 

These  writings  so  exasperated  the  Quietists  that,  in 
a  few  short  months,  its  author  found  himself,  instead 
of  Molinos,  on  the  defensive.  Complaints  against  the 
Concordia  were  also  lodged  at  the  Inquisition,  and  its 
author  did  not  know  how  soon  it,  as  well  as  himself, 
might  be  burned  for  heresy.  It  had  become  for  Segneri 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  21 

a  struggle  for  life,  and,  laying  aside  all  other  cares,  he 
put  forth  his  whole  strength  in  making  good  all  he 
had  said  against  the  doctrines  of  the  Quietists,  in  a 
work  entitled  A  Bundle  of  Doubts  about  Prayers  of 
Pure  Faith,  of  Faith  Alone,  of  Simple  Faith,  or  of 
Quiet,  with  their  Solutions,  for  a  Soul  Desirous  of  not 
Missing  the  True  Method  of  Prayer.  This  also  was 
written  as  a  reply  to  Malvalle's  Prayer  of  Pure  Faith, 
the  book  already  alluded  to,  which  Cardinal  d'Estrees 
had,  in  his  early  zeal  for  Molinos,  caused  to  be  trans- 
lated into  Italian.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  petition 
or  siipplica  addressed  to  Pope  Innocent  XI.,  in  behalf 
of  the  book  entitled  La  Concordia  tra  la  Fatica  e  la 
Quiete  nelV  Orazione,  which  the  followers  of  Molinos 
"are  trying  to  have  condemned  by  the  Holy  Office," 
and  dated  Florence,  November  28,  1681. 

This  petition  begins  by  recapitulating  some  of  the 
heretical  doctrines  during  the  previous  holy  year  which 
had  been  permitted  to  circulate  among  the  faithful, 
and  especially  the  doctrine  that  "those  who  meditate 
do  not  imitate  Christ ;  that  those  who  meditate  do  not 
adore  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth ; '  that  those  who 
meditate  bury  their  talent  of  faith  in  an  abyss  of 
reasonings;  that,  while  everything  was  created  to  be 
in  the  image  of  God,  those  who  meditate  leave  God 
aside,  and  retain  only  the  image ;  that  he  who  medi- 
tates is  an  unregenerate,  a  Nathaniel  who  stands  under 
1  The  title  of  this  book  was  The  Easy  Method  in  the  form  of 
a  Dialogue  to  Exalt  the  Soul  to  Contemplation. 

the 


22  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

the  tree  of  life  considering  the  roots,  branches,  and 
leaves,  but  never  tasting  its  fruit,"  and  so  on.  He  then 
sets  forth  at  some  length  the  objections  to  this  sort  of 
theology,  and  closes  with  the  following  appeal : 

"I,  nevertheless,  most  Holy  Father,  considering 
one  day  these  disorders  and  knowing  by  my  own  ob- 
servation the  injury  which  they  have  occasioned  and 
continue  to  occasion  to  souls,  was  overtaken  by  an 
irresistible  impulse,  which  appeared  to  me  to  come 
from  God,  and  inflamed  me  to  write  hastily  a  little  book, 
in  which  I  have  confuted  these  errors,  and  have  enti- 
tled it  Concordia  tra  lafatica  la  Quiete  neir  Orazione, 
to  show  that  in  these  things  we  ought  not  to  leave  God 
alone  to  work  in  us,  but  that  we  ought  also  to  do  our 
part  according  to- the  various  states  in  which  we  may 
be  placed.  This  little  book  so  much  displeased  the 
author  assailed,  though  not  named  by  me,  that  there 
reached  me  immediately  after  from  Rome  an  anony- 
mous letter,  most  offensive  in  tone,  which  assured  me 
as  a  certainty  that  the  book  should  be  prohibited.  I 
have  remarked  the  effects  of  this  and  other  letters 
which  succeeded  it;  in  the  fierce  tempest  which  the 
adversaries  have  raised  to  verify  what  they  have  writ- 
ten, and  under  the  special  pretext  that  my  book  is 
wanting  in  charity.  This,  I  know,  cannot  be  main- 
tained, since  I  condemn  no  one,  but  only  their  sayings, 
and  since  to  the  charity  due  to  any  individual  what- 
ever there  is  a  greater  charity  due  to  the  universal 
Christian  Church,  which  charity  I  exhibit  in  the  expos- 
ures 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  23 

ures  given  in  my  little  book  of  the  dangers  liable  to 
result  from  the  incautious  reading  of  these  authors.  I 
therefore  pray  your  Holiness  to  graciously  consent  that 
Father  Gian  Paola  Oliva,  my  general,  may  name  some 
persons  to  speak  in  my  behalf,  as  I  am  absent  from 
Rome,  and  there  show  how  true  is  what  I  have  said  in 
this  little  book,  which  on  my  knees  I  burn  to  lay  at 
your  feet,  not  out  of  solicitude  for  my  personal  fame,  but, 
engaged  as  I  have  been  for  seventeen  years  in  mis- 
sions to  so  many  important  dioceses,  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  must  impair  my  authority  and  credit  among  the 
people  to  know  that  my  teachings  had  incurred  the 
solemn  censure  of  the  Inquisition.  Besides  which,  to 
condemn  my  book  is  indirectly  to  approve  of  the  doc- 
trines I  have  assailed.  Wherefore,  I  pray  your  Holi- 
ness, by  your  love  of  the  Holy  Church,  to  have  my 
book  examined  with  the  aid  of  some  persons  to  be 
assigned  to  speak  in  my  behalf,  because  I  am  sure  you 
will  see  how  much  these  doctrines  abound  not  only  in 
absurdity  but  mischief." 

The  books  of  Segneri,  and  those  of  Molinos  and 
Petrucci,  were  examined  by  the  Inquisition.  The  latter 
two  appeared  in  person.  Segneri,  it  may  be  inferred 
from  the  foregoing  supplied,  did  not  appear.  Indeed, 
the  sympathy  of  Rome  was  so  strongly  with  the 
Molinos  party  at  that  time,  that  he  probably  deemed  it 
prudent  not  to  put  himself  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Holy  Office. 

After  a  protracted  and  tedious  investigation,  Moli- 


24  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

nos  and  Petrucci  succeeded  so  effectually  in  justifying 
themselves  that  their  books  were  approved,  while  those 
of  Segneri  were  censured  as  scandalous  and  heretical, 
and  put  into  the  index  with  two  or  three  books  writ 
against  Quietism.  It  was  soon  after  this  decision  that 
Petrucci  was  made  a  bishop,  a  significant  indication  of 
the  sympathies  of  the  Pope,  from  which  the  Molinos 
party  derived  fresh  courage  and  strength.1 

While  this  attack  was  making  in  the  north,  another 
was  made  in  the  south.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1682,  the  Cardinal  Caraccioli  makes  the  growth  of  Qui- 
etism in  Naples  the  subject  of  serious  representations  to 
the  Pope,  by  which,  as  he  expresses  himself,  "  the  devil 
has  transformed  himself  into  an  angel  of  light."  He 
complained  that  some  of  the  victims  of  this  new  faith 
"have  not  been  able  to  bring  themselves  to  say  the 
holy  rosary  nor  even  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
saying  that  they  could  not  and  would  not  do  it,  nor 
recite  any  vocal  prayer,  because  they  were  dead  in  the 
presence  of  God,  and  these  exterior  acts  were  of  no 
service."  He  tells  of  "others  in  this  prayer  of  quietude, 


i  The    Jesuits,  finding    the    this  subject  at  the  expense  of 
Pope  so  favorable  to  their  ad-    the  Pope  : 

versaries,    had  prayers  put  up        J'ai  1&  dessus  un  conte  &  faire  ; 

in  their  monasteries  for  his  con-      L'autre  J°ur  t°<«*ant  ««e  affaire. 

J,e  Chevalier  de  Sillery, 

version  to  Romanism.—  Consul-      En  pariant  de  ce  pape  ci 

Orations     SUr     Us      Affaires     de        Souhaitant,  pour  la  paix  publique  ; 

/'  Pir/itf  Qu'il  x  f(U  rend"  Catholic>ue 

Et  le  Roi  Jaques  Huguenot, 
La  Fontaine  had  his  joke  on        Je  trouve  assez  bon  ce  bon  mot. 

when 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  25 

when  the  images  of  the  saints,  and  even  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  present  themselves  to  their  imagination,  hasten 
to  drive  them  away  with  a  shake  of  the  head,  because, 
they  say,  they  separate  them  from  God.  Their 
blindness  is  so  great  that  one  of  them  took  it  into  his 
head  one  day  to  throw  down  a  crucifix  because  it  pre- 
vented him  from  uniting  himself  with  God,  and  made 
him  lose  the  Divine  presence."  The  cardinal  also 
complains  of  the  frequent  use  of  the  communion,  even 
among  the  married  laity,  as  another  evidence  of  hereti- 
cal pravity.1  There  is  not  a  word,  however,  in  this 
letter  to  imply  anything  otherwise  irregular  in  the  lives 
and  general  deportment  of  the  inculpated  devotees. 

Despairing  of  bringing  the  Pope  to  take  ground 
against  Molinos  by  any  of  the  considerations  they  could 
present,  the  Jesuits  appealed  to  Louis  XIV.,  with  whom 
their  Order  was  then  all-powerful.  To  do  their  will 
was  the  price  he  was  required  to  pay  for  the  license 
they  gave  him  to  violate  any  or  all  the  commands 
of  the  Decalogue.  To  be  esteemed  more  Catholic 
than  the  Pope,  and  more  fastidious  about  keeping  the 
purity  of  the  faith  than  the  Holy  Office  itself,  was  a 
reputation  worth  having  for  a  monarch  who  was 
always  trying  to  secure  the  advantages  of  religion 
without  any  of  its  privations,  and  the  respect  of  his 
subjects  without  deserving  it.  Pere  la  Chaise,  the 
King's  confessor,  made  the  King  believe  that  nothing 
he  could  do  would  contribute  so  much  to  ensure  all 

1  Appendix  A. 

these 


26 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 


these  results  as  to  bring  about  the  condemnation  of 
Molinos,  his  disciples,  and  doctrines.  Next  to  the  pleas- 
ure of  living  without  any  religion  himself,  Louis  XIV. 
most  enjoyed  persecuting  religion  into  other  people. 
He  yielded  to  the  specious  arguments  of  his  wily  confes- 
sor, and  gave  orders  to  Cardinal  d'Estrees  to  denounce 
Molinos  to  the  Holy  Office,  and  to  press  his  condem- 
nation with  the  utmost  vigor.1  To  most  men  occupy- 
ing the  attitude  which  d'Estrees  had  taken  towards 
Molinos  and  his  doctrines,  these  orders  from  Versailles 
would  have  been  embarrassing.  But  d'Estrees  was  a 


1 A  correspondent  of  the 
period,  writing  from  Versailles, 
August  3,  1686,  thus  refers  to 
the  French  influence  in  effect- 
ing the  disgrace  of  Molinos : 
"  They  report  from  Rome  the 
arrest  of  many  obstinate  Quiet- 
ists.  It  is  the  King  who  made 
the  Cardinal  d'Estre'es  speak 
of  it  last  year  to  the  Pope,  and 
who,  by  his  remonstrances, 
obliged  His  Holiness  to  try 
Molinos,  their  head,  for  whom 
it  is  certain  the  Pope  had  a 
particular  esteem.  He  had  even 
given  a  bishoprick  to  Petrucci, 
who  has  written  pretty  much 
the  same  things  as  Molinos, 
and  who  is  regarded  at  Rome 
as  the  first  of  his  disciples. 
They  pretend  that  the  Pope 


would  have  scarcely  permitted 
him  to  be  brought  to  trial  if 
the  King,  extending  his  zeal 
against  hereticks  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  own  states,  had 
not  ordered  Cardinal  d'Es- 
tre'es to  expose  to  him  the 
necessity  of  opposing  such  a 
fascinating  heresy.  It  was  be- 
cause of  these  remonstrances 
that  the  congregation  of  the 
Holy  Office  labored  the  past 
year  on  the  trial  of  Molinos. 
The  Cardinal  d'Estre'es,  who 
is  one  of  them,  exposed,  with 
much  science  and  zeal,  what 
is  dangerous  in  the  doctrine, 
and  with  such  success  that 
the  congregation  put  Molinos 
and  some  of  his  sectaries  in 
prison." 

courtier, 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  27 

courtier,  and  he  enjoyed  an  official  residence  at  Rome 
extremely.  Before  the  cock  could  crow  thrice,  he 
was  ready  to  burn  Molinos.  He  presented  himself 
promptly  at  the  Vatican  to  testify  to  the  Pope  the 
astonishment  of  his  sovereign  that  while  he,  the  eldest 
son  of  the  Church,  was  using  all  his  power  Jo  purge 
his  kingdom  of  the  scourge  of  heresy,  His  Holiness 
was  extending  the  hospitalities  of  the  Vatican  to  a 
corrupter  of  souls,  a  notorious  scoffer  of  the  practices 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Church. 

Innocent  XI.  sent  the  ambassador  to  the  Holy 
Office  with  his  masters  complaint.  D'Estrees  present- 
ed himself  before  the  Inquisitors  with  extracts  from 
the  book  of  Molinos,  which,  as  he  insisted,  concealed 
mysteries  of  wickedness  which  Molinos  should  be 
required  to  explain.  The  astonished  Inquisitors  asked 
the  cardinal-ambassador  how  it  happened  that  he  had 
been  so  long  the  intimate  friend  of  so  bad  a  man. 
The  cardinal-ambassador  had  the  effrontery  to  reply 
that  it  was  only  a  pious  fraud,  which  he  had  permitted 
himself  to  perpetrate  that  he  might  the  better  pene- 
trate the  inmost  thought  of  the  pernicious  mystic.  And 
to  shut  off  all  discussion,  he  added  that  in  doing  this 
he  had  merely  conformed  to  the  rules  and  usages  of 
the  Holy  Office.1 

The  Inquisitors  comprehended  that  with  such  a 
man  to  deal  with,  it  was  necessary  to  act,  not  to  debate. 

1  Madame  Guvon ;  sa  vie,  sa  doctrine,  et  son  influence,  p.  137. 

The 


28 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 


The  Jesuits,  strengthened  by  such  a  formidable  ree'n- 
forcement,  cried  "  heresy  "  louder  than  ever,  and  as 
they  had  a  controlling  influence  at  the  Holy  Office,  they 
finally  succeeded,  in  1685,  in  procuring  a  new  order  for 
the  arrest  of  Molinos.  It  was  the  execution  of  this 
order  which  led  to  the  ridiculous  adventure  of  Father 
Albertini  with  the  Male  Maritate  before  referred  to. 
Molinos  was  sent  to  the  prisons  of  the  Inquisition,  and, 
according  to  the  usage  of  that  institution,  all  his  papers 
were  seized  to  be  searched  for  evidence  that  would  com- 
promise him,  and  all  his  property  placed  under  seal  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  his  confinement  and  trial.1 


1  The  expenses  of  the  Inqui- 
sition were  entirely  defrayed  by 
the  fines  and  confiscations  of 
condemned  heretics.  When  the 
arrest  was  made,  all  the  proper- 
ty of  the  suspected  heretic  was 
seized,  and  if,  as  rarely  happen- 
ed, he  was  found  innocent,  only 
that  portion  of  his  property  was 
restored  to  him  that  remained 
after  all  the  costs  of  his  arrest, 
trial,  and  detention  had  been 
paid.  The  cost  to  the  accused, 
whether  innocent  or  guilty,  was 
the  same  up  to  the  end  of  the 
investigation.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that,  under  such  a  sys- 


tem, few  upon  whom  the  offi- 
cers of  the  Inquisition  once  laid 
their  hands  were  found  inno- 
cent, especially  if  they  had  any 
property,  were  in  possession  of 
any  troublesome  secrets,  or  had 
any  faculty  and  inclination  to 
propagate  opinions  not  in  har- 
mony with  the  policy  and  inter- 
ests of  the  Roman  government. 
Some  12,000  letters  were  found 
in  his  escritoire,  and  about 
4,000  scudi,  the  joint  fruits  of  his 
extensive  spiritual  commerce. 
— Historia  di  Tutte  I' Heresie, 
descritta  da  Domenico  Bernino, 
v.  4,  p.  714. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Queen    Christine,  of  Sweden,  renounces  her  crown  and  her  religion  — 

Enters  the   Roman   Church  —  Takes  Molinos 

for  her  spiritual  director. 

A  MONG  other  eminent  personages  who  had  been 
^~*-  captivated  by  the  doctrines  of  Molinos,  and  led 
to  take  a  strong  personal  interest  in  his  fortunes,  was 
the  eccentric  Christine,  ex-Queen  of  Sweden,  to  whose 
friendly  offices  he  was  now  greatly  beholden. 

Christine  was  one  year  older  than  Molinos.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  the  great  Gustavus,  whose  pre- 
mature death  at  Lutzen  raised  her  to  the  throne  of 
Sweden  when  only  six  years  of  age.  Maturing  early, 
in  her  eighteenth  year  she  dismissed  the  regency  by 
which  the  government  had  been  conducted,  and  as- 
sumed, not  only  in  name  but  in  fact,  the  full  duties 
of  sovereignty.  Her  devotion  to  the  public  business 
and  her  influence  in  the  councils  were  a  theme  on 
which  all  the  foreign  representatives  at  her  court  loved 
to  dwell.  She  was,  withal,  renowned  for  her  beauty, 
and,  probably,  the  most  accomplished  woman  of  her 

years 


30  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

years  that  ever  sat  upon  a  throne.  The  savans  of  her 
own  and  foreign  countries  vied  with  each  other  in 
writing  panegyrics  on  her  genius.  Her  biographer 
counted  up  two  hundred  of  them. 

"At  the  age  of  fourteen,"1  she  has  told  us,  "I 
knew  all  the  languages,  all  the  sciences,  and  all  the 
accomplishments  that  they  attempted  to  teach  me.  But 
since  that  time  I  have  learned  many  others  without  the 
help  of  any  master,  and  it  is  certain  that  I  never  had 
a  master  for  learning  either  German,  French,  Italian, 
or  Spanish."2  With  Vossius  she  read  the  most  im- 
portant Greek  authors  of  antiquity,  and  even  the 
fathers  of  the  Church  were  not  suffered  to  remain 
unknown  to  her.  It  was,  doubtless,  from  him,  too, 
that  she  early  acquired  the  disastrous  habit  of  walking 
by  sight  and  not  by  faith  in  matters  of  religion.3 
Heinsius  stocked  her  library  with  choice  books  and 
costly  manuscripts  from  Italy.  Descartes  was  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  her  every  morning  at  five  o'clock,  to 
talk  philosophy  and  to  hear  her  trace  the  points  of 
resemblance  between  his  teachings  and  those  of  Plato. 
"If  I  tell  you,"  says  Naude,  "that  her  genius  is 
altogether  extraordinary,  I  shall  utter  no  falsehood, 

1  La   Vie  de  Christine,  ecrite  be    disposed    to    gainsay   this 
par  ellememe.  latter  statement. 

2  So    far    as    the    Queen's  3  It    was    of    Vossius    that 
French  is  concerned,  no  one  Charles  II.  of  England  wittily 
who  has  read  any  of  her  com-  said  that  ' '  He  believed  every- 
positions  in  that  language  will  thing  but  the  Bible." 

for 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  31 

for  she  has  seen  everything,  she  has  read  everything, 
she  knows  everything."1  It  was  infinitely  to  her  credit, 
too,  that,  wiser  than  the  wise  men  of  her  generation, 
she  anticipated  the  judgment  of  posterity  upon  Gro- 
tius,  and  gave  to  him  her  confidence  and  protection, 
when  to  do  so  was  to  provoke  the  formidable  malice 
of  Richelieu.  With  all  her  attractions,  she  withstood 
all  the  importunities  of  her  suitors  and  counsellors  to 
marry.  "  I  should,  no  doubt,  have  married,"  she 
says,  farther  on  in  her  autobiography,  "  if  I  had  not 
felt  myself  possessed  of  the  strength  to  dispense  with 
the  pleasures  of  domestic  life."2  The  obligations  that 
she  might  have  felt  to  form  a  matrimonial  alliance  for 
the  sake  of  her  country  she  believed  herself  to  have 
removed  by  settling  the  succession  to  the  crown,  with 
the  consent  of  the  Estates,  upon  her  cousin  Charles 
Gustavus,  who  had  been  one  of  the  many  unsuccessful 
suitors  for  her  hand. 

In  both  these  eccentric  determinations,  Christine 
was  influenced,  if  not  controlled,  by  a  purpose  which 
had  long  been  germinating  in  her  mind,  to  change  her 
religion.  When  only  nine  years  of  age,  hearing  for 
the  first  time  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  faith 
expounded  to  her,  and,  among  other  things,  that  the 
unmarried  state  was  considered  meritorious  in  that 
church,  she  exclaimed,  "Ah,  how  fine  that  is;  I  will 
be  of  that  religion."  Unhappily,  the  religion  in  which 

1  Naude  h.  Gassendi,  Oct.  19,  1652. 

*  La  Vie  de  Christine,  Icrite  par  ellememe. 

she 


32  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

she  was  brought  up  was  to  one  in  her  position  more 
an  affair  of  state  than  of  conviction.  Unhappily,  too, 
it  was  administered  as  an  affair  of  state.  The  long 
harangues  to  which  she  was  required  to  listen  bored 
her.  So  did  the  heavy  and  unsympathetic  compan- 
ionship of  her  country-people.  To  escape  them  she 
surrounded  herself  with  the  most  illustrious  citizens  of 
foreign  lands  whom  she  could  persuade  to  reside  at  her 
capital.  Among  those  whose  society  proved  especially 
agreeable  to  her,  in  the  frame  of  mind  to  which  events 
had  brought  her,  was  the  confessor  of  the  Portuguese 
minister  at  her  court,  Macedo,  a  Jesuit  priest.  The 
minister  spoke  no  language  but  Portuguese,  and 
Macedo  acted  both  as  his  interpreter  and  as  his 
priestly  adviser  everywhere.  The  Queen  found  pleas- 
ure in  leading  Macedo  to  talk  on  religious  topics, 
while  the  minister  was  flattering  himself  that  they 
were  deep  in  the  mysteries  of  Portuguese  politics. 
Thus,  secure  from  suspicion  by  the  presence  of  a  third 
person,  though  that  person  knew  nothing  of  what  was 
passing,  she  confided  to  Macedo  the  perilous  secret  of 
her  real  or  pretended  religious  doubts  and  troubles. 
We  say  pretended,  because  it  can  never  be  known 
how  far  this  adventure,  which  was  to  conduct  her  to 
such  serious  results,  originated  in  a  taste  for  intrigue, 
and  how  far  in  the  agitation  of  her  conscience.  Sud- 
denly Macedo  disappeared  from  Stockholm.  The 
Queen  pretended  to  take  his  departure  in  great  dud- 
geon, and  sent  in  pursuit  of  him  with  orders  to  bring 

him 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  33 

him  back.  Of  course  he  was  not  taken.  She  had 
actually  sent  him  to  Rome  to  explain  her  troubles  and 
dispositions  to  the  general  of  the  Jesuits,  and  to  ask 
that  one  or  more  of  the  most  trusty  members  of  the 
Order  be  sent  to  consult  with  her  as  to  the  best  means 
of  extricating  herself  from  the  web  of  obstacles  which 
circumstances  had  woven  around  her,  to  a  repudiation 
of  the  religion  of  her  fathers,  and  to  her  entering 
the  Latin  communion. 

Precisely  at  the  time  of  Macedo's  disappearance, 
Christine  made  known  to  the  Estates  her  intention  to 
abdicate,  saying,  of  course,  nothing  of  her  intention  to 
change  her  religion.  Two  Jesuits,  named  respectively 
Molinos  and  Casati,  were  promptly  despatched  from 
Rome  to  superintend,  not  so  much  her  conversion 
as  her  abjuration.  That  her  purpose  to  enter  the 
Latin  communion  was  fixed  before  Macedo  was  sent 
to  Rome  for  reinforcements,  there  is  no  doubt.  In  the 
first  paragraph  of  the  report  which  Casati  makes  of 
his  mission  to  Pope  Alexander,  he  says:  "In  obe- 
dience to  the  wishes  of  your  holiness  for  a  short 
memorial  of  what  passed,  in  regard  to  the  Queen's  reso- 
lution to  renounce  her  kingdom  for  the  purpose  of 
becoming  Catholic,  I  am  compelled  to  go  back  a  step 
that  I  may  explain  the  cause  thereof  in  conformity 
with  statements  from  the  mouth  of  the  Queen 
herself,"  etc.  This  confirms  what  is  sufficiently  dis- 
closed by  her  notification  to  the  Estates  of  her  intention 
to  abdicate,  simultaneously  with  Macedo's  departure 

for 
3 


34  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

for  Rome.  The  account  which  Casati  gives  of  his  first 
reception  by  the  Queen  farther  betrays  the  same  fore- 
gone conclusion. 

f(  *  *  *  While  the  Queen  was  at  supper,  two 
gentlemen  complained  that  it  was  very  cold,  and  the 
general  reproached  them,  declaring  that  two  Italians 
who  had  come  thither  in  his  company  had  shown  no 
such  fear  of  cold.  The  Queen,  hearing  this  contest  and 
inquiring  the  cause  of  their  contending,  was  told  that 
two  Italians  were  coming.  She  asked  if  they  were 
musicians;  but  the  general  replying  that  they  were 
two  gentlemen  travelling  to  see  the  country,  her 
Majesty  said  that  she  would  by  all  means  like  to  see 
them.  We  were  immediately  informed  of  all  this,  and 
advised  to  go  to  court  on  the  following  day.  On  the 
following  morning  we  were  accordingly  conducted 
thither  by  Signor  Zaccaria  Grimani,  a  Venetian  noble, 
who  introduced  us  to  pay  our  respects  to  Count  Mag- 
nus de  la  Gardie,  her  Majesty's  prime  minister,  that 
through  him  we  might  obtain  the  honor  of  kissing  the 
hand  of  her  Majesty.  He  received  us  with  much  cour- 
tesy, and  assured  us  that  her  Majesty  would  have  much 
pleasure  in  seeing  us.  It  was  then  the  hour  of  dinner, 
and  her  Majesty  came  out  into  the  '  Vierkant,'  when  we 
were  directed  to  approach  her  Majesty,  and  having 
kissed  her  hand,  we  made  her  a  short  compliment  in 
Italian  (for  so  she  had  commanded,  although  she  had 
caused  us  to  be  informed  that  she  would  reply  in  French, 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST.  35 

since  she  understood  it ),  suitable  to  the  character  we 
had  assumed,  and  she  replied  with  the  utmost  urbanity. 
Immediately  afterwards,  the  marshal  of  the  court, 
and  with  him  all  the  other  gentlemen,  set  forward 
towards  the  hall  wherein  the  table  was  laid  for  dinner, 
and  I  found  myself  immediately  before  the  Queen.  She, 
who  during  the  night  had  thought  over  the  matter  of 
the  two  Italians,  and  reflecting  that  it  was  precisely  the 
end  of  February,  about  which  time  it  had  been  written  to 
her  from  Rome  that  we  should  arrive,  had  begun  to 
suspect  that  we  were  the  persons  whom  she  was  look- 
ing for:  thus,  when  we  were  but  little  distant  from  the 
door,  and  that  nearly  all  the  company  had  gone  out 
of  the  '  Vierkant,'  she  said  to  me  in  a  low  voice,  '  Per- 
haps you  have  letters  for  me  ? '  and  I  having  replied, 
without  turning  my  head,  that  I  had,  she  rejoined : 
t  Do  not  name  them  to  any  one.'  While  we  were  dis- 
coursing after  dinner  on  the  matters  that  had  occurred, 
we  were  joined  by  a  person  who  made  us  various  com- 
pliments in  French,  and  then  proceeded  to  inquire  if 
we  had  letters  for  her  Majesty.  I  began  at  once  to 
give  ambiguous  replies;  that  we  were  not  there  for 
business ;  that  we  had  no  letters  of  recommendation, 
&c.,  until  at  length  he  repeated  all  that,  in  our  short 
and  fortuitous  colloquy,  the  Queen  herself  had  said  to 
me.  I  then  perceived  that  he  could  not  be  sent 
by  any  other  than  herself,  yet  for  the  greater  security  I 
asked  for  his  name,  and  hearing  that  he  was  John 
Holm,  I  gave  him  the  letter.  The  following  morning, 

nearly 


36  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

nearly  two  hours  before  the  usual  time  for  going  to 
court,  John  Holm  gave  us  to  know  that  her  Majesty 
would  speak  to  us.  We  went  immediately,  and  had 
hardly  entered  the  '  Vierkant,'  where  there  was  no  one 
then  but  the  officer  on  guard,  than  the  Queen  came  forth 
and  appeared  to  be  surprised,  either  because  none  of 
the  gentlemen  were  yet  there  or  because  we  had  been 
the  first  to  arrive.  She  put  some  few  questions  to  us 
respecting  our  journey,  then  hearing  the  officer,  she 
asked  him  if  any  of  the  secretaries  had  yet  appeared. 
He  replying  that  they  had  not,  she  commanded  him 
to  go  and  call  one  of  them,  when  he  did  not  return  for 
an  hour.  When  he  was  gone,  her  Majesty  began  to 
thank  us  courteously  for  the  pains  we  had  taken  in 
making  the  voyage  on  her  account ;  she  assured  us  that 
whatever  danger  might  arrive  to  us  from  being  dis- 
covered, we  should  not  fear,  since  she  would  not  suffer 
that  evil  should  befall  us.  She  charged  us  to  be 
secret  and  not  to  confide  in  any  one,  pointing  out  to 
us  by  name  some  of  those  to  whom  she  feared  lest  we 
might  give  our  confidence  in  process  of  time.  She 
encouraged  us  to  hope  that  if  she  should  receive  satis- 
faction, our  journey  would  not  have  been  made  in  vain. 
She  questioned  us  respecting  the  arrival  of  Father 
Macedo,  and  how  we  had  been  selected  to  visit  her 
court ;  and  related  to  us  in  what  manner  the  departure 
of  Father  Macedo  had  taken  place."  * 

1  Paoli    Casati    ad  Alessan-    Ranke,    History  of  the  Popes, 
dro  VII.  Sopra  la   Regina  di    vol.  iii.,  p.  430. 
Suecia  Bibl  Albani,  quoted  by 

Christine 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  37 

Christine  seems  to  have  thought,  once  or  twice, 
that  she  hesitated  to  separate  herself  from  the  country, 
the  people,  the  church,  and  the  God  of  her  fathers ; 
but  she  was  mistaken.  The  yearning  of  her  nature 
for  change,  for  sensation,  for  penetrating  the  mystery 
and  enjoying  the  sensation  of  private  life,  about  which 
she  had  golden  dreams,  had  laid  fast  hold  upon  her. 
It  made  all  public  business  distasteful.  She  thought, 
to  use  her  own  expression,  that  she  saw  the  devil 
when  one  of  her  secretaries  approached  her  with 
despatches  for  her  signature.  Neither  could  she  endure 
the  society  and  manners  of  her  people.  Her  most  con- 
stant and  welcome  guest  was  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
who  was  privy  to  her  religious  tendencies,  and  who  was 
authorized  to  offer  her  an  asylum  in  his  master's 
dominions,  as  well  as  to  arrange  all  the  preliminaries 
with  the  Pope  for  her  reception  into  the  Latin  Church.1 

Neither  the  entreaties  of  Oxenstiern  nor  of  the  aged 
Count  de  Brahe,  who  had  placed  the  crown  on  her 
youthful  head,  could  shake  her  determination.  Hav- 
ing secured  to  herself,  as  she  supposed,  an  adequate 
income,  by  a  charge  upon  some  of  the  revenues  of  the 
kingdom,  on  the  24th  day  of  June,  1654,  and  in  the 

1  Pallavicini,  in  his  life  of  by  religion  and  by  her  Catho- 
Pope  Alexander  VII.,  says:  lie  Majesty,  but  when  it  was 
"  The  ministers  of  the  Spanish  known  that  this  could  not  be 
court,  when  Molinos  first  pro-  done  but  with  offence  to  re- 
posed this  thing,  would  by  all  ligion,  the  king  was  pleased  to 
means  have  had  the  Queen  re-  become  the  patron  of  so  high- 
tain  the  kingdom,  both  because  minded  an  act." 
of  the  advantage  to  be  gained 

twenty-ninth 


38  MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

twenty-ninth  year  of  her  age,  she  abdicated  her  throne, 
and,  with  her  suite,  quit  Sweden  to  seek  what  she 
expected  would  prove  a  more  congenial  home  and 
more  congenial  employments.  On  her  way  through 
Brussels  she  abjured  Lutlieranism ;  at  Innspruck  she 
formally  embraced  the  Catholic  faith;  at  Loretto  she 
offered  her  crown  and  sceptre  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
upon  the  invitation  of  the  Pope  went  to  Rome,  where 
she  was  received  with  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
of  a  triumphant  sovereign,  or,  perhaps  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  say,  as  the  trophy  of  a  triumphant 
prelate. 

For  several  years  to  come  we  find  Christine  a  sort 
of  lioness  in  partibus.  Now  in  Rome  ;  now  in  other 
parts  of  Italy  ;  now  in  France  ;  then  in  Rome  again  ; 
but  she  was  so  eccentric,  so  exacting,  and  so  lawless, 
that  her  departure  was  generally  a  more  welcome 
event  than  her  arrival,  everywhere. 

She  finally  took  up  her  permanent  abode  at  Rome, 
where,  as  a  royal  convert,  she  was  of  more  account  than 
she  could  hope  to  be  anywhere  else. 

In  the  course  of  time,  and  in  consequence  of  unfore- 
seen political  vicissitudes  in  Sweden,  her  revenues  were 
cut  off,  and  she  found  herself  reduced  to  a  state  of 
humiliating  dependence.  She  was  obliged  to  appeal 
to  the  Pope  —  then  Alexander  VII. —  for  aid,  masking 
her  purpose  in  the  form  of  a  request  that  he  would 
require  the  bankers  of  Rome  to  cash  her  drafts,  which 
had  fallen  into  discredit.  The  Pope,  who  had  doubt- 
less 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  39 

less  carefully  estimated  her  business  value,  sent  her 
10,000  scudi,  and  afterwards  settled  upon  her  a  pension 
of  12,000  scudi  per  annum,  to  be  expended,  however, 
under  the  supervision  and  audit  of  Cardinal  Azzolini, 
whose  subsequent  devotion  and  assiduity  in  her  service, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  calumny  has  not  spared.  He 
afterwards  became  her  principal  heir.1  Christine  was 
not  long  in  realizing  what  all  sovereigns  had  before  her, 
who  by  abdication  had  hoped  to  retain  the  luxuries 
of  power  without  bearing  its  burdens,  that  a  queen 
without  a  kingdom  was  a  divinity  without  a  temple, 
whose  worship  was  soon  abandoned.  She  soon  wearied 
of  the  obscurity  which  had  been  gradually  settling  down 
upon  her,  and  of  the  indifference  of  the  world  to  her  fate, 
which  it  was  no  one's  policy  longer  to  disguise.  She 
pined  for  her  abdicated  throne  and  power,  and  upon 

1  About  two  years  before  her  Pope  gave  me  was  the  only  stain 

death,  the  successor  of  Alexan-  onmylife.  I  received  it  from  the 

der,  Pope  Innocent  XI.,  found  hand   of  God   as  the  greatest 

or  made  a  pretext  for  depriving  mortification  by  which  he  could 

the  Queen  of  her  pension  of  12,-  humble   my  pride.      I   plainly 

oco  scudi,  of  which  he  caused  see   that   I  have  entered   into 

communication    to    be    made  His  grace,  since  he  has  done  me 

through  Cardinal  Azzolini.    In  the  singular  favor  of  taking  it 

a  letter  which  she  immediately  from  me  so  gloriously.    *    *    I 

addressed  to  the  cardinal,  she  pray  you  to    thank    Cardinal 

assures  him  that  he  had  given  Cibo  and  the  Pope,  on  my  be- 

her  the  most  agreeable  news,  half,  for  discharging  me  from 

"  God,  who  knows  my  heart,"  this     obligation." — Mtmoires 

she  adds,  "  knows  I  do  not  lie.  concernant  Christine,   Reine  de 

The  12,000  crowns  which  the  Suede,  vol.  ii.,  p.  260. 

the 


40  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

the  death  of  her  cousin  and  successor,  Charles  Gus- 
tavus,  in  1660,  returned  to  Sweden  and  tried  to  recover 
them,  but  without  success,  the  Swedes  naturally  resent- 
ing her  insults  and  her  apostasy.  She  also  offered  her- 
self as  a  candidate  for  the  thrones  successively  of  Poland 
and  Naples,  but  with  no  better  success.  She  was  now 
and  from  henceforth  to  be  counted  among  the  curiosities 
of  Rome,  as  purely  such  as  St.  Peter's  dome  or  the  mar- 
bles of  the  capitol  or  the  frescoes  of  the  Vatican  ;  that 
and  nothing  more.  Like  the  Santissimo  Bambino,  she 
was  used  to  work  such  little  miracles  for  the  church  as 
required  the  prestige  of  royal  blood  and  religious 
apostasy.1 

The  History  of  Louis  XL,  by  Du  Clos,  was  con- 
demned by  the  French  Parliament  for  the  remark  that 
La  devotion  fut  de  tous  temps  fasile  des  Reims  sans 
pouvoir.  Whether  true  of  all  crownless  queens  or  not, 
it  is  certain  that  Christine,  in  common  with  most  con- 
verts to  a  new  faith,  was  not  content  with  being  as  papal 
as  the  Pope.  That  satisfied  neither  her  intelligence, 
nor  her  judgment,  nor  her  ambition.  She  could  do 
nothing  temperately.  Nor  could  she  tolerate  any  mys- 

1  Voltaire,     in      some     verses          Qui  connut  tout  et  ne  crftt  rien. 

which  he  addressed  to  Queen        £ue  'f  Saint ,f"e  canonUe- 

Que  damne  le  Luth^nen, 

Ulrique,  of  Sweden,  concludes        Et  que  la  gloire  immortaiise. 
a  sketch  of  her   predecessor, 

Christine,  as  follows  :  The  last  Ime-  PerhaPs'  does 

more  credit   to  Voltaire  s   gal- 

Christine  des  arts  le  maintien  ; 

Christine  qui  c^da  pour  rien.  Iantl7  than    tO  hls  character  as 

Et  son  Royaume  et  votre  Egiise,        a  historian  or  a  prophet. 

teries 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  41 

teries.  Her  active  mind  and  morbid  taste  for  excitement 
soon  lifted  her  into  the  nebulous  atmosphere  of  mys- 
ticism, and  she  yearned  for  a  supremacy  in  the  church 
which  she  had  inconsiderately  surrendered  in  the  state. 
If  she  could  not  be  a  queen,  she  would  be  a  St.  Cather- 
ine, or  a  St.  Theresa.  When  Molinos  arrived  in  Rome, 
he  brought  to  her  a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Palermo,  and  it  goes  almost  without  saying 
that  he  was  immediately  received  into  her  confidence 
and  under  her  protection. 

She  promptly  addressed  to  the  archbishop  the  fol- 
lowing letter : 

"  ROME,  December  13,  1681. 
"  MY  LORD  ARCHBISHOP  OF  PALERMO  : 

' '  D.  Michael  de  Molinos  presented  me  the  letter  from 
your  Holiness,  which  I  received  with  much  pleasure, 
from  the  particular  consideration  which  I  entertain  for 
your  goodness  and  virtue,  of  which  it  testified.  Your 
Holiness  may  be  assured  of  my  readiness  to  cooperate 
according  to  my  ability  in  the  advancement  of  the 
cause  for  which  I  sent  the  Canon  Laffarte  to  that  court. 
Thanking  your  Holiness  for  your  cordial  expressions 
in  my  behalf,  I  recommend  myself  earnestly  to  your 
holy  sacrifices,  and  pray  God  for  your  true  prosperity. 

"  P.  S. — I  also  recommend  myself  to  the  holy  sacri- 
fices of  that  saintly  man,  although  I  have  little  faith  in 
saints  who  eat ;  but,  at  all  events,  the  sacrifice  always 
has  its  effect."1 

1  Memoir es  concernant  Christine,  Reinede  Sutde,  vol.  iv.,  p.  36. 

Four 


42  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

Four  months  later,  Christine  writes  to  the  arch- 
bishop another  letter,  which  is  important  for  the  evi- 
dence it  furnishes  of  the  interest  taken  in  Molinos  and 
his  doctrines  by  an  officer  of  such  high  rank  in  the 
church,  and  also  of  the  need  which  Molinos  was  already 
beginning  to  experience  of  official  protection. 

"  ROME,  April  8,  1682. 

"  I  did  not  sooner  answer  the  letter  of  your  Holiness 
of  the  2Oth  of  January,  so  confounded  was  I  by  what 
you  wrote  concerning  our  Doctor  Molinos.  Though 
you  thank  me  so  abundantly  for  the  protection  I  have 
extended  to  him,  your  Holiness  knows  that  he  cannot 
lack  the  protection  of  God,  who  is  truth  and  justice  it- 
self, and  whose  cause  is  his  cause.  Our  Molinos  there- 
fore cannot  be  overwhelmed  by  his  adversaries,  what- 
ever persecutions  he  may  be  compelled  to  endure.  I 
am,  however,  beholden  to  your  Holiness  for  the  af- 
fectionate sentiments  which  your  Holiness  expresses 
on  this  occasion,  and  your  Holiness  may  be  assured 
that  I  shall  not  cease  to  protect  Molinos,  about  whom 
your  Holiness  shall  know  all  that  takes  place.  Recom- 
mending myself,"  etc. 

About  three  years  from  the  date  of  this  letter,  the 
Archbishop  of  Palermo  was  translated  to  the  archie- 
piscopate  of  Seville,  which  was  regarded  as  a  substantial 
evidence  of  his  favorable  standing  at  the  pontifical 
court,  where,  up  to  this  time  at  least,  friendship  for 

Molinos 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  1ST.  43 

Molinos  did  not  seem  to  bring  bad  luck.  In  the  post- 
script to  a  letter  dated  Nov.  II,  1684,  congratulating 
the  archbishop  upon  his  promotion,  the  Queen  writes : 

"  *  *  *  I  take  our  Molinos  to  witness  the  sin- 
cerity of  the  sentiments  of  esteem  and  affection  which 
I  profess  towards  your  Holiness,  and  I  hope  to  have  the 
opportunity  of  showing  by  actions  the  real  justice  I  do 
to  the  worth  of  your  Holiness." 

This  letter  shows  how  greatly  their  relations  had 
changed  in  the  three  short  years  since  "our  Molinos" 
was  first  presented  to  the  Queen.  It  is  no  longer  the 
Queen  but  the  priest  who  is  the  patron. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Father  Mabillon,  the  Benedictine,  at  Rome  — 
Father  Petrucci  and  the  Inquisition. 

AS  the  resistance  of  the  water  to  a  ship  increases 
with  its  speed,  so  the  hostility  to  Molinos  in- 
creased with  his  popularity.  In  a  letter  written  in 
June,  1685,  seven  months  after  the  preceding,  Chris- 
tine writes  again  to  the  Archbishop  of  Seville:  "Our 
Molinos  is  more  and  more  persecuted,  but  I  hope  that 
he  will  triumph  more  and  more  so  long  as  he  finds 
innocence  protected  by  the  Lord  our  God.  My  Lord, 
we  need  patience.  Gold  is  refined  in  the  furnace,  and 
truth  will  be  victorious  in  the  end,  so  please  God." 

The  tone  of  this  letter  is  ominous.  Evidently  the 
clouds  that  were  gathering  over  Molinos  were  growing 
more  portentous  and  sullen. 

Among  the  important  arrivals  at  Rome  in  the  spring 
of  1685  was  Father  Mabillon,  of  the  famous  Congrega- 
tion of  St.  Maur,  to  prosecute  a  mission  confided  to 
him  by  Letellier,  then  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  for 

the 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST.  45 

the  collection  of  books  and  manuscripts  in  Italy  with 
which  to  enrich  the  library  of  his  royal  master,  Louis 
XIV.  Mabillon's  private  letters,  written  from  Rome  to 
his  brethren  of  St.  Maur,  sometimes  by  his  own  hand 
and  oftener  by  the  hands  of  one  or  two  of  the  brethren 
of  his  Order  who  accompanied  him,  contribute  much 
precious  information  in  regard  to  some  of  the  succeed- 
ing stages  of  the  war  upon  the  Quietists — information 
all  the  more  valuable  because  it  reaches  us  through  a 
source  little  liable  to  the  refracting  influence  of  parti- 
sanship, and  because  it  was  given  in  the  freedom  of  as 
much  confidence  as  in  those  days  one  monk  could  be 
supposed  ever  to  have  in  another  of  his  own  Order. 

Molinos,  as  we  have  said,  was  arrested  only  a  few 
days  before  Mabillon's  arrival.  It  was  the  theme  of 
every  social  circle.  The  most  eminent  and  influential 
people  were  divided  in  opinion,  less  as  to  the  justice  of 
his  treatment  than  as  to  the  relative  strength  of  the 
embattled  combatants.  Before  the  Inquisition  had  laid 
hands  upon  him,  and  while  it  was  simply  a  struggle 
with  the  Jesuits,  Molinos  had  troops  of  powerful  and 
outspoken  friends,  but  when  it  was  known  that  he  had 
fallen  into  the  slimy  and  inexorable  embrace  of  the 
Dominican  octopus,  none  but  hot-heads  felt  like  speak- 
ing or  writing  with  freedom  about  him.  The  forces 
antagonized  were  formidable  and,  on  one  side  at  least, 
as  merciless  as  the  grave.  The  Pope  Innocent  XI., 
though  known  to  be  friendly  to  Molinos,  was  seventy 
years  of  age,  quite  infirm,  saw  very  few  people,  and 

trusted 


46  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

trusted  none.  What  sacrifices,  if  any,  he  would  make 
to  protect  Molinos,  or,  if  any  he  could  make  would  be 
effective,  no  one  could  guess,  while  every  one  knew 
that  no  battle  was  ever  fought  with  the  Jesuits  success- 
fully without  sacrifices. 

The  first  notice  of  Molinos  which  appears  in  the 
correspondence  of  the  Benedictine  emissaries  is  the 
following  paragraph  of  a  letter  signed  by  Claude 
Estiennot,  and  dated  from  Rome,  July  30,  1685.  Mo- 
linos had  been  in  prison  already  several  weeks. 

"  *  *  *  Sleep  in  peace,  but  do  not  make  the 
prayer  of  Quietism  as  some  do  here  who  are  called 
Quietists.  They  are  the  new  Illumines  who  give  every- 
thing to  the  soul  and  deny  the  body  nothing,  rejecting 
vocal  prayers,  penitential  acts,  and  mortifications,  &c. 
There  is  a  large  number  of  them  in  prison,  where  they 
will  have  leisure  to  make  the  prayer  of  Quietism. 
Nevertheless,  the  writings  of  Dr.  Molinos  are  under 
investigation,  preparatory  to  his  trial.  We  will  send 
you  the  result."1 

On  the  day  following  that  on  which  the  foregoing 
letter  was  written,  they  wrote  again : 

"ROME,  July  31,  1685. 

"  *  *  *  I  sent  you  a  word  in  the  last  touching 
Dr.  Molinos,  the  Spanish  priest.  They  have  put  him, 

i  Corrtspondance     in/dite     de    notices    d'lclaircissements,    etc., 
MMllon    et     de     Montfaucon    par  M.  Vattry.     Lettre  xlii. 
avec     I' Italic,    accompagnt    de 

as 


MOLfNOS   THE   QUIBTIST .  47 

as  I  wrote  you,  in  the  Inquisition.  We  do  not  yet  know 
precisely  what  are  the  causes  of  his  imprisonment. 
They  have  also  put  there  for  the  same  cause  some 
ecclesiastics,  some  secular  persons,  and  even  some  ladies 
of  quality.  I  have  met  some  very  sensible  and  fair- 
minded  people  who  speak  of  Molinos  in  very  favorable 
terms,  and  who  said  he  was  a  very  humble  and  disin- 
terested man.  All  do  not  share  these  sentiments,  but 
it  is  better  to  believe  good  than  evil.  They  may  well 
have  abused  the  teachings  of  this  ecclesiastic.  He  is 
not  the  first  person  put  into  the  Inquisition  whose 
innocence  was  subsequently  conceded."1 

One  week  later,  the  Benedictines  refer  again  to  this 
subject,  and  make  special  allusion  to  the  interest  taken 
in  his  case  by  Queen  Christine: 

"ROME,  August  7,  1685. 

"  *  *  *  Some  say  that  the  affair  of  the  Quietists 
will  end  in  smoke.  The  Queen  of  Sweden  continues  her 
protection  to  Doctor  Molinos,  the  head  of  this  party. 
They  say  that  this  Spaniard  was  never  more  splendidly 
treated  than  since  his  arrest,  through  the  liberality  of 
this  princess,2  who  is  exerting  her  influence  to  have  him 
liberated.  They  are  very  severe  here  with  all  who  circu- 
late scandalous  news.  A  Spanish  priest,  who  is  charged 
with  this  offence,  has  been  arrested,  and  will  be  lucky 

Ibid.,  Lettre  xliv.  he  had  need,  from  her  kitchen. 

1  The   Queen   used  to   send    — Mem.  concern.  Christine,  vol. 
him,  daily,  everything  of  which     iv. ,  p.  36. 

if 


48  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

if  he  gets  nothing  worse  than  the  galleys.  An  old  man 
of  sixty  years,  who  wrote  at  this  priest's  dictation,  and 
distributed  the  calumnies,  was  hung  on  Friday  last. 
All  this,  joined  to  the  affair  of  the  Quietists,  has  given 
currency  to  a  clever  pasquinade.  Pasquin  tells  Mar- 
forio  he  is  going  to  quit  Rome.  When  asked  the 
reason  for  this  resolution,  he  replies :  '  He  who  talks  is 
sent  to  the  galleys,  he  who  writes  is  hung,  and  he  who 
is  quiet  goes  to  the  Inquisition.'1  So  he  thinks  it  time 
to  quit  Rome." 

On  the  same  day,  Porcheron,  one  of  the  Benedictines, 
opens  the  case  of  Molinos  more  fully,  although  with 
characteristic  prudence  abstaining,  as  they  all  do 
throughout  their  correspondence,  or  at  least  until  after 
the  decisions  of  the  Holy  Office  had  been  pronounced, 
from  committing  themselves  to  any  positive  opinions  on 
the  merits  of  the  questions  at  issue. 

"  ROME,  August  7,  1685. 

it  *  *  *  Nothing  is  more  divided  than  Rome 
about  Molinos  and  the  Quietists.  I  observe  that  most 
fair-minded  people  agree  that  this  doctor  was  irreproach- 
able in  his  life  and  morals.  Don  Jean2  sends  to  Mon- 
signore  de  Rheims 3  two  books  and  other  facts  pro  and 

1  Chi    parla    e    mandate    in  3  Letellier,      Archbishop    of 
galera ;     chi    scrive    e    impic-  Rheims,   who  succeeded   Col- 
cato  ;  qui  sta  quieto  va  al  Santo  bert  in  the  councils  of  Louis 
Officio.  XIV.,  under    whose    auspices 

2  Mabillon.  Mabillon   and  his  party  were 

con 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  49 

con  by  the  post.  I  have  read  none  of  this,  but  learned 
Frenchmen  who  have  read  them  find  nothing  to  con- 
demn in  them. 

"The  most  rational  objections  to  the  pretended 
innocence  of  Molinos  are : 

"  First.  That  no  one  is  arrested  by  the  Holy  Office 
who  is  not  two-thirds  convicted  in  advance  of  the  offence 
for  which  he  is  arrested. 

"  Second.  He  was  on  excellent  terms  with  the  Pope, 
who,  not  disliking  Spaniards,  would  not  have  changed 
his  opinions  if  good  reasons  had  not  been  given  him  to 
do  so  —  so  good  even  that  he  is  reported  as  saying  : 
'  Veramente  siamo  ingannato. ' l 

"  Third.  The  Queen  of  Sweden  and  Cardinal 
Azzolini,2  both  friends  of  Molinos,  have  exerted  them- 
selves to  know  the  end  of  the  affair  so  far  as  the 
prisoners  are  concerned.  The  Queen  received  for 
reply  that  they  could  not  reveal  to  her  any  part  of 
this  secret,  except  that  the  evil  was  great,  greater  than 
was  supposed.  After  all,  I  believe  one  may  reasonably 
say  that  '  the  great  sin '  of  these  people  was  the 
possible  consequences, —  the  fear  that  they  should  be- 
come a  sect  which  would  be  the  more  dangerous  for 
growing  up  in  the  bosom  and  noblest  parts  of  the 

sent  into  Italy,  and  to  whom  *  Azzolini,  it  will  be  re- 
the  Her  Italicvm,  written  on  his  membered,  was  the  cardinal 
return,  was  dedicated.  charged  by  the  Pope  with  the 

1  Truly    we    have    been   de-    supervision       of      Christine's 
ceived.  finances. 

Catholic 


So  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

Catholic  faith.  For  it  is  well  you  should  know,  my 
dear  friend,  that  the  propositions l  of  our  lords  make 
us  pass  here  and  throughout  Italy,  still  more  in  Spain 
and  in  many  parts  of  Germany,  and  even  among  the 
English  and  Dutch  Catholics,  for  little  better  than 
heretics.  *  *  *  They  have  hung  the  secular  who 
wrote  against  the  Pope  and  the  Court  of  Rome.  The 
Pope  wishes  the  priest  who  was  guilty  of  the  same  crime 
should  die  also.  When  one  asks  specifically  what  this 
secular  has  written,  they  say  (I  trust  through  discontent 
with  the  pontifical  court)  that  he  had  only  made  a 
pasquinade  on  the  late  ceremony  of  the  Haguene'e, 
saying  that  the  parade  had  made  the  snail  leave  his 
shell ;  in  other  words,  that  the  Pope  had  been  constrained 
by  this  occasion  to  be  borne  from  his  chamber  to  his 
chapel  to  receive  homage.2  Apropos  of  this,  a  joke  is 
current  which  they  put  in  the  mouth  of  Pasquin.  He 
says  he  means  to  quit  Rome  at  once.  Why  ?  '  Because 
if  a  man  here  speaks,  he  is  sent  to  the  galleys ;  if  he 
writes,  he  is  hanged,  and  if  he  keeps  silent,  he  is  thrown 
into  the  Inquisition'  (Per  che  qui  parla  va  in  galera, 
gut  scrive  e  spiccato,  qui  e  quieto  e  inandato  al  Sant' 
Officio).  These  three  horns  of  Marforio's  dilemma  relate 
to  the  secular  who  had  been  hung  for  writing  as 

'The  four  propositions  adopt-  2  Innocent,  for  reasons  suf- 

ed  by  the  French  bishops  in  ficient  for   himself,  had    been 

1682,  setting   new  bounds    to  leading  a  very  secluded   life, 

the  authority  of  the  Papacy  in  and  was  very  inaccessible. 
France.    They  were  written  by 
Bossuet. 

above, 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  51 

above,  to  the  ecclesiastic  who  was  sent  to  the  galleys 
for  having  written  what  was  dictated  to  the  secular, 
and  finally  to  Molinos,  who,  for  being  the  chief  of  the 
Quietists,  had  been  sent  to  the  Holy  Office."1 

Only  five  days  after  the  date  of  the  foregoing  letter, 
we  have  a  letter  from  Bossuet,  in  the  course  of  which 
it  transpires  not  only  that  the  Molinos  prosecution  was 
attracting  the  attention  of  the  hierarchy  in  France, — 
confirming  what  Burnet  had  learned  from  a  provincial 
of  the  Jesuits,  that  they  were  using  Louis  XIV.  to  work 
their  purposes  upon  the  Spanish  iconoclast,  —  but  also 
that  to  those  of  his  acquaintance  who  had  known 
Molinos  —  and  here  is  probably  an  allusion  to  Cardinal 
d'Estrees,  with  whom  Bossuet  was  in  correspondence, 
and  who  had  hitherto  been  a  friend  of  Molinos  —  the 
prosecution  was  a  surprise.  It  was  not  till  five  or  six 
years  later,  and  when  Fenelon  ventured  to  say  that 
Madame  Guyon  might  be  a  Quietist  without  necessarily 
deserving  to  be  roasted,  that  the  Bishop  of  Meaux  put 
on  his  war-paint : 

"We  are  awaiting  the  issue  of  the  Molinos  affair, 
which  has  not  a  little  surprised  every  one,  and  espe- 
cially those  who  had  known  Molinos  in  Rome.  I  know 
persons  so  zealous  for  him  that  they  wish  to  believe 
everything  done  against  him  is  the  work  of  a  secret 
cabal,  and  that  he  will  come  out  of  it  not  without 
honor;  but  what  we  see  of  it  has  not  that  aspect." 

Bossuet  knew  too  well,   and  to    his    sorrow,   the 
power  of  the  Jesuits  over  the  King  and  the   power  of 
1  Ibid.,  Letter  xlvi. 

the 


52  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

the  King  at  Rome,  to  suppose  that  an  obscure  Spanish 
priest  could  long  make  head  against  such  a  combina- 
tion. 

The  friends  of  Molinos,  however,  were  still  active, 
and  some  of  them  courageous.  Even  the  Archbishop 
of  Seville  did  not  shrink  from  manifesting  his  cordial 
sympathy,  nor  from  exerting  all  his  influence  to  sus- 
tain him.  The  following  letter  from  Queen  Christine 
is  in  reply  to  one  of  his  appeals : 

"ROME,  November  17,   1685. 
"  My  Lord  Archbishop  of  Seville: 

"  Your  Holiness's  letter  of  the  28th  of  August  was 
very  welcome,  as  well  on  account  of  the  affection  as 
of  the  esteem  I  feel  for  you.  I  sympathize  sincerely 
with  your  sorrow  for  the  troubles  of  Dr.  Molinos,  of 
which  I  heard  with  infinite  displeasure.  Your  Holiness 
is  right  in  assuming  that  I  extend  to  him  my  protection, 
and  you  may  be  assured  that  I  shall  continue  to  do  so. 
I  only  regret  that  it  does  him  so  little  good.  I  console 
myself,  however,  with  the  hope  that,  before  such  a  just 
and  wise  tribunal  as  the  Holy  Office,  innocence  will 
finally  triumph  over  imposture  and  malignity,  as  it  is 
the  cause  of  God,  and  I  am  confident  that  His  Provi- 
dence will  rule  everything  to  His  greatest  glory  and 
service.  Meanwhile,  I  thank  your  Holiness  for  your 
obliging  expressions  in  my  behalf,  and  commend  myself 
to  your  holy  sacrifices,  praying  God  to  preserve  and 
prosper  you." 

The 


MOLINOS    THE   QUIETIST. 


S3 


The  Queen  somewhat  overestimated  her  firmness. 
It  is  stated  in  the  Theatre  Europeen  for  the  year  1687 
that  she  threw  into  the  fire,  in  the  presence  of  her 
domestics,  all  the  letters  and  books  of  Molinos.  "  If  this 
be  true,"  says  her  biographer,  "  it  was  as  a  precaution, 
seeing  that  the  Pope  himself  did  not  escape  the  pur- 
suits of  the  Holy  Office."  ' 

Father  Petrucci,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  lent  his 
pen  to  the  propagation  of  the  doctrines  of  Quietism,  was 
so  hotlypursued  by  the  Inquisitors,  that  the  Pope,  to  save 
him,  was  obliged  to  make  him  a  cardinal,4  and  he  seems 
to  have  been  the  only  one  of  the  disciples  to  whom  friend- 
ship for  Molinos  brought  any  luck,  at  least  in  this  world.3 


1  Mem.  Cone.  Christine,  vol. 
ii.F  p.  186. 

1  It  is  a  curious  and  suggest- 
ive peculiarity  of  the  tribunal 
of  the  Inquisition,  that  it  had 
no  jurisdiction  over  the  Pope, 
his  legates,  nuncios,  cardinals, 
bishops,  or  familiars.  They, 
however,  were  not  wholly  irre- 
sponsible. Poison  and  the  dag- 
ger always  remained,  and  they 
have  usually  proved  quite  as 
good  judges  of  heresy  as  the 
Inquisition. 

Secular  sovereigns  are  not 
among  the  privileged. 

3  "  The  cardinal  [Petrucci] 
was  afterwards  prosecuted  on 


account  of  his  female  devotees, 
whom  he  called  canonesses, 
and,  it  is  said,  made  wear 
the  tonsure.  He  was  likewise 
accused  of  frequenting  too 
often  the  monastery  belonging 
to  the  barefooted  nuns  of  St. 
Theresa,  in  which  he  preached 
up  the  Molinist  doctrine  of  pray- 
ing in  quiet  and  tranquillity,  to 
which  he  gave  the  name  of  holy 
repose.  And  it  is  said  that  the 
greater  part  of  these  nuns  were 
infected  with  this  delusion,  and 
that  the  cardinal  had  laid  his 
hands  a  little  too  familiarly 
upon  more  than  one  of  them 
Besides,  he  kept  some  young 
His 


54 


MOLINOS  THE   QUIET  I  ST. 


His  promotion  was  good  for  the  following  distich  from 
Pasquin : 

"  Crimine  sunt  similes  ambo,  sed  dispare  sorte, 
Ostrum  Petruccius  ;  vincla  Molinos  habet." 

(Their  crime  the  same,  yet  how  unlike  their  fate : 
To  one  the  purple  and  to  one  the  prison's  gate.) 


men  and  women  in  a  country- 
house  he  had,  not  far  from  the 
place  of  his  residence,  whither 
he  went  often  to  divert  himself. 
All  these  matters  appear  in  the 
cardinal's  trial,  by  the  declara- 
tion of  a  certain  she-bigot  called 
by  the  name  of  Frances,  whom 
the  cardinal  had  many  and 
many  a  time  instructed  in  this 
matter  of  holy  reposes.  She  con- 
fessed freely  everything  the 
cardinal  had  taught  her,  and 
said,  moreover,  that  he  had  at- 
tempted to  lie  with  her  in  an 
unnatural  way. 

"Besides,  a  great  many  other 
she-devotees  were  well  affected 
to  this  cardinal,  who  owned 
publicly  that  they  received  in- 
struction from  him,  and  that  he 
allowed  them  a  monthly  pen- 
sion of  five-and-forty  giulios 
(  about  six  dollars  American 
money),  which  the  cardinal 
was  wont  to  distribute  to  them 


with  his  own  hand.  This  delu- 
sion began  to  spread  itself  so 
far,  that  many  other  women 
gave  themselves  up  to  this  life, 
being  continually  in  prayer, 
and  enjoying  the  holy  repose, 
as  they  called  it,  exactly  in 
the  same  manner  as  it  was 
recommended  by  that  wicked 
wretch  Molinos,  of  whom  the 
cardinal  was  a  disciple,  having 
been  instructed  by  him,  and 
having  received  from  him  many 
of  his  doctrines  in  writing. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  strict 
inquiry  made  into  this  cardi- 
nal's life,  bymany  vigorous  pro- 
ceedings.yet  he  has  always  been 
found  innocent  as  to  anything 
of  sensuality  and  covetous- 
ness,  which  are  the  two  poles 
on  which  the  malice  of  man- 
kind, and  especially  of  the 
Quietists,  usually  turns.  Never- 
theless, because  of  the  scan- 
dals which  some  of  his  disci- 
ples 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 


55 


pies  had  given,  the  Inquisition 
obliged  the  Pope  to  recall  him, 
and  to  make  him  renounce  his 
bishopric,  that  his  female  devo- 
tees and  hisotherdisciplesmight 
have  no  further  hopes  of  seeing 


him  any  more  in  those  parts." — 
The  Present  State  of  the  Court 
of  Rome,  or  the  Lives  of  the 
Present  Pope,  Clement  XI.,  and 
of  the  Present  College  of  Car- 
dinals, p.  125. 


CHAPTER   V. 

The  Trial  and  Condemnation  of  Molinos. 

MOLINOS  did  not  quail  before  the  gathering  storm. 
Nothing,  not  even  the  promise  of  his  freedom 
nor  immunity  from  torture,  could  make  him  admit  the 
charges  of  impiety  imputed  to  him,  nor  abjure  the  doc- 
trines he  had  taught.  "The  reports  which  Cardinal 
Conti  has  from  Rome,"  writes  Father  Segneri  to  Cosmo 
the  Grand  Duke,  on  the  nth  of  January,  1686,  "are, 
that  Molinos,  being  interrogated  by  the  Congregatione 
Graciosa l  if  he  had  need  of  anything,  replied,  '  De 
nada,'and  said  nothing  more,  and  it  is  believed  he  will 
stand  firm.  Signor  Cardinal  Azzolini2  was  absent  from 
the  Congregation,  and  with  another  cardinal  was 
excused  on  account  of  indisposition,  which  gives  food 
for  much  speculation.  The  difficulty  of  the  Pope's 
interfering  in  the  deliberations  of  a  Congregation 

1  A  Jesuitical  euphemism  for        3  The  friend  of  Queen  Chris- 
the  Tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,     tine  and  of  Molinos. 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  57 

causes  them  to  be  much  protracted;  it  not  being 
possible,  without  his  Holiness,  easily  to  reconcile  the 
diversity,  of  views." ' 

It  was  evident  from  the  tone  of  this  note  that  the 
Pope  was  now  the  only  obstacle  to  the  conviction  of 
Molinos.  But  even  popes  have  their  masters  in  Rome. 
Months  rolled  on,  Molinos  still  in  prison  and  the  ques- 
tion of  his  guilt  or  innocence  still  undetermined.  The 
delay  was  ominous.  Those  nearest  the  Pope  and  most 
in  his  confidence,  who  before  had  made  no  secret  of 
their  sympathy  with  the  prisoner,  fled  to  cover.  Nay, 
there  was  but  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  the  Pope 
himself  was  beginning  to  weaken,  for  in  February  of 
1687,  a  circular  signed  by  Cibo,  the  Cardinal  Secretary 
of  State,  was  issued  in  obedience  to  instructions,  not,  it 
is  true,  from  the  Pope,  but,  what  was  worse,  from  the 
Sacred  Congregation  itself,  and  addressed  to  "all 
potentates,  bishops,  and  superiors  in  Christendom, 
warning  them  to  break  up  all  the  schools,  associa- 
tions or  brotherhoods  in  which,  under  the  pretext  of 
spiritual  conference,  certain  directors  without  any 
experience  of  the  ways  of  God  known  to  the  saints, 
and  perhaps  even  with  evil  intent,  feigned  to  lead  souls 
in  prayer  which  they  call  quietude,  or  pure  love  and 
interior  faith,  and  other  names."2 

It  was  apparent  that  a  circular  of  this  character  from 
the  Cardinal  Secretary,  who,  as  well  as  his  master,  was 

1  Lettere  inedite,  p.  53.  8  Appendix  B. 

not 


58  MOL1NOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

not  a  little  compromised  by  his  friendship  for  Molinos,1 
would  never  have  issued  had  not  the  enemies  of  the 
mystic  gained  the  ascendant.  Like  evidences  of  the 
activity  of  the  Jesuits  reached  Rome  from  abroad, 
especially  from  France.  From  Spain,  too,  the  omens 
were  growing  unfavorable.  The  Inquisition  of  Aragon 
solemnly  condemned  //  Guida  Spirituale,  and  imposed 
upon  it  all  the  customary  penalties  for  printing, 
selling,  or  reading  a  heretical  book,  quite  regardless  of 
the  fact  that  the  same  work  had  twice  before  received 
the  approval  of  the  Inquisition  of  Spain,  and  a  Latin 
version  of  it  had  been  printed  at  Leipsic  with  the 
"approbation"  of  the  Archbishop  of  Seville.2 

Encouraged  by  all  these  evidences  of  approaching 
triumph,  the  Jesuits  proceeded  to  hunt  up  and  arrest  all 
who  had  been  instrumental  in  disseminating  or  coun- 
tenancing the  doctrines  of  Molinos.  Nor  these  only, 
but  all  who  by  the  terrors  of  torture  or  the  shame  of 

1  La  Bletterie,  the  friend  and  Molinos.  But  to  be  sure  of  your 

correspondent  of  Fe'nelon,  in  Highness  having  one,   I  have 

one  of  his  letters  Sur  la  relation  thought  it  best  to  enclose  to  you 

de  Quiethme,  says  that  Innocent  a  copy  sent  to  me.     It  will  suit 

XI.  had  put  himself  under  the  me  to  have  it  again  when  your 

spiritual  direction  of  Kfolinos.  Highness  gives  me  theprivilege 

(Euvres  de  Fe'nelon,  vol.  10,  p.  of  seeing  you  again  before  your 

74.  departure.    I  wish  to  hope  this, 

1  "  FLORENCE,  Jan.  i,  1686.  because  the  evil  is  by  Divine 

"  I  cannot  doubt  that  Father  favor    diminishing." —  Lettere 

Serra  has  sent  you  the  edict  of  inedite  di  Paolo  Segneri,  p.  49. 
Spain  against  the  Guida  of  Dr. 

the 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  59 

the  San  benito  could  be  made  to  disclose  any  evidence 
which  might  be  made  a  pretext  for  the  arrest  and  con- 
viction of  others.  The  prisons  were  thronged '  with 
the  fruit  of  these  pursuits,  and  one  might  have  sup- 
posed from  visiting  them  that  Quietism  was,  if  not  the 
only  crime  known  to  the  Roman  law,  the  only  crime 
which  was  committed,  or,  at  least,  that  was  punished  by 
imprisonment.  Owing  to  the  secrecy  with  which  the 
doings  of  the  Inquisition  are  conducted,  but  little  is 
known  of  the  charges  against,  or  of  the  punishment  of, 
multitudes  who  perished  in  this  ruthless  raid.  Some 
glimpses  of  their  proceedings,  however,  have  shone 
through  the  private  correspondence  of  the  period,  from 
which  the  rest  may  be  judged.  Not  being  able  to  dis- 
cipline Petrucci,  to  whom  the  wings  of  a  cardinalate  had 
been  given  to  enable  him  to  fly  above  his  pursuers, 

1  "  Suddenly,  in  1687,  the  In-  of  his  country-houses  on  the 

quisition  caused  the  arrest  of  sea-shore.     There  was  general 

two  hundred  persons,  among  consternation    at    Rome    and 

them  Count  and  Countess  Ves-  throughout   Italy.     Every   one 

piniani,    Don    Paolo    Rocchi,  trembled  for  himself,  and  not  a 

confessor    of    Prince    Borgia,  voice  was  raised  in  behalf  of 

the   nephew  and   secretary  of  Molinos.     This  priest,  who  for 

Cardinal    Petrucci,   while    the  more  than  twenty   years   had 

cardinal    himself  was  obliged  sustained  at  Rome  the  reputa- 

to  hide  for  a  time.     Cardinal  tion  of  a  saint,  passed   all  at 

Caraffa  and  the  Cardinal  Ci-  once  for  the  wickedest  man  of 

ceri  had  the  same  inquietudes,  the  age." — Madame  Guyon;  sa 

Don  Livio,  the  nephew  of  the  vie,  sa  doctrine,    et   son    inftu- 

Pope,    thought  it    prudent    to  ence,  par  L.  Gue rrier,  p.  138. 
quit  Rome,  and  retired  to  one 

they 


6o  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

they  at  last  seized  upon  his  unfortunate  amanuensis, 
the  Abbe  Taya,  whom  they  frightened  nearly  to  death. 
Etiennot  wrote  to  his  brethren  at  St.  Maur  —  Mabil- 
lon  and  his  companions  had  already  left  Italy  —  some 
letters  which,  besides  giving  important  details  of  the 
Abbe  Taya's  troubles,  and  of  others  in  the  same 
category,  throw  much  valuable  side-light  upon  the 
methods  and  purposes  of  the  Inquisitors.  On  the  2d 
of  July,  1687,  he  writes: 

"It  is  wished  that  the  sentence  of  Molinos  be  pro- 
nounced, and  a  well-informed  person  told  me  that  what 
could  would  be  done  to  save  him  from  burning.  This 
affair  has  afflicted  the  Holy  Father  extremely.  The 
captain  of  the  Piazza  d'Espagna  has  died  in  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo.  He  has  thus  escaped  prosecution."  ' 

"ROME,  Aug.  5,  1687. 

«  *  *  «  Thursday  evening,  after  various  com- 
plaints addressed  to  the  Holy  Office  against  the  poor 
Abbe  Taya  for  what  he  had  said  and  written,  and  for 
having  prepared  an  apology  for  the  opinions  of  Car- 
dinal Petrucci  and  the  Quietists,  and  printed  it,  the 
police  went  to  his  apartment,  took  him,  and  put  him  in 
prison.  He  at  first  fainted.  When  he  came  to,  he 
asked  only  that  they  would  notify  Cardinal  Petrucci 
that  they  were  taking  him  to  the  Holy  Office.  A  com- 
missioner of  the  Holy  Office  was  sent  at  the  same  time 
to  seize  his  books  and  papers.  If  they  find  the  disser- 

Cor.  intdite  de  Mabillon,  &c.,  v.  ii. ,  p.  68. 

tation 


MOL1NOS   THE  QUIETIST.  61 

tation  there  it  will  go  hard  with  him.  Monsignor  Ci- 
ampini,  with  whom  he  had  come  to  reside,  had  luckily 
dismissed  him  some  months  before.  This  has  afflicted 
his  friends,  but  Monsignor  Victori,  who  came  to  see  me 
this  morning,  avowed  that  he  had  drawn  this  upon 
himself  by  his  talk  and  by  the  obstinacy  he  has  shown 
for  the  Quietists.  What  -will  afflict  him  is  that  when 
the  news  of  his  arrest  was  communicated  to  Monsignor 
the  Cardinal  Petrucci,  the  cardinal  declared  that  he 
had  never  asked  him  to  write  for  him,  nor  had  any 
need  of  his  help  for  his  justification.  Here  is  a  poor 
fellow  lost.  As  for  Monsignor  the  Cardinal  Petrucci, 
they  tell  me  that  he  is  now  printing  a  work  in  which  he 
disavows,  recalls,  or  explains  the  opinions  or  expres- 
sions in  his  book  which  are  thought  too  strong,  and 
that  he  has  testified  to  the  Holy  Father  that  he  had 
believed  he  was  writing  and  speaking  the  truth,  but  if 
the  Holy  Father  judged  differently,  he  was  ready  to 
submit,  retract,  &c.  As  for  Molinos,  no  one  knows 
what  to  say.  I  have  a  copy  of  his  trial.  It  fills  almost 
a  ream  of  paper.  In  the  two  hundred  and  sixty  prop- 
ositions there  are  some  which  are  not  excusable.  A 
part  are  already  condemned.  I  will  endeavor  to  send 
you  the  decree  by  the  next  opportunity."  * 

In  a  letter  written  a  few  weeks  before  this,  Estiennot 
had  given  the  following  details  of  the  progress  of  the 
trial  of  Molinos,  with  which  his  correspondent  is  here 
assumed  to  be  acquainted  : 

1  Cor.  inldite  de  Mabillon,  &c.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  76. 

"  They 


62  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

"  They  are  still  in  hot  pursuit  of  Molinos.  A  friend 
has  allowed  me  to  overlook  the  record  of  the  trial. 
*  *  *  There  are  two  hundred  and  sixty  propo- 
sitions drawn  from  his  letters  and  writings,  most  of 
which  are  untenable,  and  others  are  expressed  in  very 
harsh  terms.  They  say  that  we  shall  see,  before  very 
long,  most  of  these  propositions  condemned  by  the 
Holy  Office.  Not  a  word  has  yet  been  said  of  his  book. 
It  is  not  five  years  since  it  was  approved  by  this  court, 
and  how  can  it  so  soon  decide  to  condemn  it?  That 
will  come,  but  it  takes  time."1 

On  the  1 2th  of  August,  we  hear  again,  from  the 
same  source,  of  Father  Taya : 

"ROME,  Aug.  12,  1687. 

««  *  *  *  A  Father  Boussy,  of  the  Chiesa  Nuova, 
having  composed  an  apology  for  Molinos  and  Cardinal 
Petrucci,  showed  it  and  handed  it  for  examination  to 
Abbe  Taya,  who  found  it  very  well  done.  They  after- 
wards showed  it  to  Cardinal  Cibo,  who  gave  a  permis- 
sion by  word  of  mouth  to  a  bookseller  to  print  it. 
This  became  known.  The  books  were  seized;  Father 
Boussy  went  and  accused  himself  before  the  Holy 
Office  and  thus  drew  himself  out  of  the  affair,  while  the 
poor  Abbe  Taya,  who  was  not  the  author  of  the 
treatise,  has  had  to  pay  for  all.  They  say  that  he  has 
confessed  and  avowed  all,  and  that  by  this  means  he 
will  be  able  the  sooner  to  draw  himself  out  of  the  busi- 

1  Cor.  inttdite  de  Mabillon,  vol.  ii.,  p.  49. 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  63 

ness.     But  with  all  this  he  is  a  lost   man,  and  has 
nothing  more  to  hope  from  this  court."  ' 

"ROME,  Aug.  19,  1687. 

"  *  *  *  I  have  a  copy  of  the  Abbe  Taya's 
apology  for  Cardinal  Petrucci.  It  is  not  badly  done, 
but  he  has  printed  it  without  the  permission  of  the 
Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace  ;  he  has  talked  too  freely ; 
in  fact  they  were  not  well  disposed  toward  him  (lui  en 
voulait),  and  for  some  time  have  been  waiting  their 
opportunitatem. " 2 

At  length,  after  twenty-two  months'  close  confine- 
ment ;  after  enduring  tortures  to  compel  inculpating 
confessions,  of  which  the  world  has  been  permitted  to 
know  nothing,  except  what  they  are  entitled  to  infer 
from  the  well-known  usages  of  the  Inquisition;  after 
all  the  letters  he  had  received  for  more  than  twenty 
years  had  been  put  into  the  crucible  of  their  malignity, 
to  extort  from  them  poison  that  would  kill  and  not 
betray ;  after  hunting  down  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  Rome  not  too  formidable  by  their  rank  or  con- 
nections, who  could  be  induced  by  their  fears  or  their 
hopes  to  repeat  real  or  imaginary  conversations  with 
the  accused,  Molinos  was  brought  forth  from  his  dun- 
geon to  receive  the  judgment  of  the  Inquisitors. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  September,  1687,  the 
church  of  Santa  Maria  Sopra  Minerva,  at  Rome, 

6  Cor.  intdite  de  Mabillon,  vol.          2  Cor.  inldite  de  Mabillon,vo\. 
ii.,  p.  81.  ii.,  p.  84. 

was 


64  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

was  thronged  at  an  early  hour.  The  stalls,  or  palchi, 
of  which  a  large  number  had  been  erected  for  the  occa- 
sion, were  filled  by  the  nobility  and  with  prelates  of 
distinction.  The  college  of  cardinals,  the  General  of 
the  Inquisition  and  all  his  officers,  were  there,  too, 
seated  opposite  each  other  upon  a  platform  reserved 
for  them.  Every  remaining  place  to  sit  or  stand  upon 
in  that  vast  temple  was  occupied,  for  had  it  not  been 
posted  upon  all  the  churches  in  Rome  that  on  that  day 
and  in  that  church  the  officers  of  the  Inquisition  were 
to  proclaim  the  result  of  their  inquiries  into  the  alleged 
heresies  of  Molinos  ?  To  insure  a  large  attendance,  and 
to  give  to  the  impending  ceremonies  as  much  as  pos- 
sible the  air  of  a  popular  manifestation  against  the 
accused  and  his  followers,  the  public  had  been  also 
notified,  several  days  before,  that  an  indulgence  would 
be  accorded  of  fifteen  years  to  all,  and  of  forty  years 
to  some,  who  should  assist  at  the  ceremonies  of  this 
auto  dafe. 

It  was  a  gala  day  for  Rome,  and  all  its  population, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  seemed  to  have  been 
condensed  within  the  walls  of  this  famous  church, 
which  resounded  with  the  murmur  of  conversation, 
with  the  flutter  of  dresses  and  of  fans,  and  which  within 
the  memory  of  men  then  living  had  witnessed  the 
humiliation  of  Galileo.  In  the  curiosity  excited  by  every 
new  or  conspicuous  arrival,  in  the  gayety  of  the  scene, 
in  the  pleasure  of  unexpected  meetings  and  joyous 
greetings,  in  the  quickened  wit  and  lively  repartee, 

which 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  65 

which  are  the  familiar  incidents  of  an  unoccupied  crowd, 
the  occasion  which  had  brought  the  assembly  was  almost 
forgotten.  Suddenly  the  noise  is  hushed,  the  motion 
of  fans  is  suspended,  and  all  eyes  are  directed  towards  a 
side  door  nearest  the  platform  occupied  by  the  Inquisi- 
tors. An  aged  monk,  attended  by  an  officer,  was 
approaching  with  a  slow  and  solemn  pace.  His  hands 
in  manacles  were  held  in  front  of  him.  In  one  of  them 
he  bore  a  candle.  With  a  self-possessed,  though  some- 
what severe  expression,  he  walked  slowly  towards  the 
place  assigned  him  by  his  attendant,  fronting  at  once 
the  cardinals  and  the  Grand  Inquisitors. 

Molinos,  the  man  upon  whom  now  every  eye  in  the 
vast  and  breathless  assembly  was  fixed,  was  about  sixty 
years  of  age.  His  frame  was  robust,  his  movement 
dignified  and  majestic.  A  settled  expression  of  melan- 
choly sat  upon  his  face;  his  complexion  was  quite 
dark,  and  his  nose  was  both  long  and  sharp.  He  wore 
the  frock  of  his  Order,  descending  to  his  heels,  and 
having  the  soiled  and  shabby  look  which  daily  use  dur- 
ing nearly  two  years'  confinement  in  prison  sufficiently 
explained.  The  scene  in  which  he  bore  so  conspicuous 
a  part  seemed  to  find  no  reflection  in  his  face.  It 
expressed  no  emotion,  but  said  in  language  more  elo- 
quent than  words,  "  This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of 
darkness."  We  are  indebted  to  Estiennot,  who  was 
one  of  the  spectators,  for  the  fairest  and,  indeed,  for 
almost  the  only  account  of  it  which  was  ever  published, 
though  it  is  given  but  as  "  a  brief  extract  from  a  long 

letter 

5 


66  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

letter  written  from  Rome  " ;   on  the  very  day  of  the 
ceremonies  it  describes.1 

"ROME,  September  3,  1867. 

"  To-day,  in  the  Church  of  Minerva,  in  the  presence 
of  the  college  of  cardinals  and  of  an  innumerable  crowd, 
Molinos  made  his  abjuration.  We  counted  over  fifty 
boxes  (palchi)  in  the  church,  filled  with  ladies  and  of 
the  highest  nobility.  In  the  other  boxes  were  prelates, 
religiosi,  seminarists,  and  there  was  not  a  place  that 
was  not  crowded  with  people.  Molinos  was  conducted 
to  the  platform  facing  the  cardinals  and  the  tribunal 
of  the  Holy  Office,  consisting  of  consulting  prelates,  of 
the  General  of  the  Dominican  Order,  of  the  Commis- 
sioner, of  some  of  the  Qualifiers  who  qualified  the 
propositions,  and  other  agents  of  the  Holy  Office. 
Molinos  stood  with  a  policeman  by  his  side,  who,  from 
time  to  time,  wiped  his  face.  In  his  hands,  which  were 
manacled,  he  held  a  burning  candle.  From  the  pulpit 
near  the  criminal,  one  of  the  fathers  of  St.  Dominick 
read,  in  a  loud  voice,  an  abstract  of  the  trial.  It  was 
observed  that  his  face,  while  this  lasted,  about  three 
hours,  as  when  he  entered  and  left,  was  full  of  contempt 
and  defiance,  especially  at  the  commotion  of  the 

1  The  suppression  of  the  linos  was  condemned,  and  in 
larger  part  of  the  letter  prob-  which  any  apology  for  him  or 
ably  finds  its  explanation  in  his  writings  is  threatened  with 
the  concluding  paragraph  of  all  the  penalties  of  the  major 
the  papal  bull  in  which  Mo-  excommunication. 

people, 


MOLING  S   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  67 

people,  who,  as  they  heard  the  account  of  some  of  his 
graver  villainies,  shouted  boisterously,  '  To  the  stake  ! 
to  the  stake ! '  (fuoco,fuoco).  During  all  this,  Molinos 
did  not  even  change  color,  but  made  his  feeling  of  con- 
tempt only  the  more  conspicuous.  He  did  not  even 
bow  his  head  when  several  times  the  names  of  Jesus, 
Mary,  and  the  Holy  Sacrament  were  pronounced. 
Whence  many  concluded  that  he  abjured,  not  from  a 
detestation  of  the  heresy  which  he  heard  read,  but  to 
avoid  being  made  a  spectacle  of  in  the  Campo  di  Fiore, 
where  he  would  have  been  burned  alive.  The  abstract 
of  the  trial  consisted  of  two  parts.  One  regarded  the 
sixty-eight  dogmatic  propositions  which  are  printed,1 
and  accessible  to  every  one.  Of  these  there  is  nothing 
more  to  be  said.  The  second  relates  to  his  wickedness, 
especially  in  sensual  matters.  Some  of  his  offences 
were  the  following :  For  twenty-two  years  he  had 
not  confessed,  because,  as  he  affirmed,  he  knew  that  in 
all  that  time  there  was  not  material  enough  for  a  venial 
fault.  During  all  his  life  he  had  not  observed  Lent,  but 
on  Fridays  and  Sundays  had  eaten  as  well  flesh  as  fish. 
To  some  of  his  pupils  he  professed  to  have  uttered 
prophecies. 

"  In  giving  a  dirty  shirt,  which  he  brought  to  Rome 
from  Spain,  to  one  of  his  friends,  he  advised  him  to 
keep  it  with  care,  because  after  his  death  it  would  be 
recognized  as  a  most  important  relic  (una  grandisima 
reliqua). 

i  Appendix  C. 

"To 


68  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

"To  the  guard  who  bound  and  brought  him 
through  the  street  to  the  Holy  Office,  he  said  that  he 
was  the  special  agent  of  God,  and  that  he  (the  guard) 
would  be  punished.  After  the  reading  of  the  trial 
was  over,  he  was  stripped  of  the  long  frock  of  the 
priest,  and  clothed  with  the  garment  of  penance,  with 
the  cross  on  the  back,  showing  through  all  the  ceremony 
of  excommunication  his  accustomed  intrepidity  and 
contempt.  He  was  condemned  to  close  confinement 
in  the  Holy  Office  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  to  wear  the 
garment  of  penance,  with  the  cross  on  his  breast,  to 
confess  four  times  a  year, — at  Christmas,  Easter,  Pen- 
tecost, and  All  Saints'  Day, —  and  besides  to  recite  the 
credo  every  day,  a  third  part  of  the  rosary,  and  to  med- 
itate the  mysteries.  All  his  writings,  as  well  manuscript 
as  printed,  are  proscribed  under  the  heaviest  penalties. 

"  On  the  following  day,  the  4th,  the  two  brothers  of 
Casa  Leone,  of  the  diocese  of  Como,  one  a  priest  and 
the  other  a  layman,  made  their  second  abjuration. 
The  first  showed  signs  of  repentance,  but  the  second 
appeared  as  defiant  as  Molinos.  The  matters  read 
from  the  abstract  of  the  trial  were  similar,  but  not  as 
abominable  as  those  about  Molinos."  ' 

The  propositions  which  were  read  to  him,  and  of 
which  he  was  found  guilty,  were  sixty-eight  in  number, 
though  they  are  nearly  all  merely  variations  and  exag- 
gerations of  a  single  theme. 

1  Cor.  inedite  de  Mabillon,  &c.,  v.  ii.,  p.  95. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

The  Proceedings  of  the  Trial,  as  reported  by  the  Holy  Office. 

AN  abstract  of  the  trial  of  Molinos  was  prepared, 
apparently  by  some  officer  of  the  Inquisition,  to 
give  such  information  and  produce  such  impressions 
of  Molinos  as  it  was  thought  desirable  to  have  propa- 
gated in  other  quarters  where  Quietism  had  found 
friends.  We  have  already  cited  a  letter  of  Estiennot, 
in  which  he  speaks  of  sending  such  an  abstract  to  St. 
Maur.  The  Abbe  Renaudot,  writing  to  Bossuet  some 
ten  days  after  the  trial,  speaks  of  sending  him  one.  "  I 
have  read,"  he  says,  "  the  entire  trial,  which  occupies 
more  than  a  ream  of  paper,  but  I  have  not  dared  to 
ask  my  friends  here  to  give  me  a  copy  of  so  long  a 
document.  I  send  you,  instead,  an  abstract  of  the 
whole,  made  by  the  hand  of  a  master,  with  various 
letters.  It  has  required  some  days  to  copy  them." 
Father  Germain  thanks  Magliabecchi,  on  the  6th  of 
October,  1687,  for  sending  him  a  similar  document.1 
In  the  Magliabecchi  collection  of  manuscripts,  now  be- 

1  Cor.  indd.  de  Mabillon,  &c.,  v.  ii.,  p.  113. 

longing 


TO  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

longing  to  the  National  Library  in  Florence,  there  is 
an  abstract  of  this  trial,  the  one,  doubtless,  from  which 
the  copy  sent  to  Father  Germain  was  made.  This 
and  those  referred  to  in  the  letters  of  the  abbes  Ger- 
main, Renaudot,  and  Estiennot  are,  no  doubt,  the 
same,  and  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  the  most 
"official"  record  of  the  proceedings  which  consigned 
Molinos  to  perpetual  imprisonment  and  a  premature 
grave  that  exists  outside  of  the  Vatican.  Though  pre- 
pared obviously  in  a  spirit  of  foregone  hostility  to  the  ac- 
cused and  of  blind  servility  to  the  accusers,  it  gives  many 
facts  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  offences  sought  to 
be  fixed  upon  Molinos  which  are  curious,  and  deserve 
to  be  read,  if  only  to  show  us  how  much  the  world  has 
gained  in  tolerance,  humanity,  and  common  sense  in 
two  hundred  years. 

ABSTRACT  OF  THE  TRIAL  AND  SENTENCE  OF 
MICHEL  DE  MOLINOS,  SON  OF  PETER  MOLINOS, 
SIXTY  YEARS  OF  AGE,  A  SPANIARD,  OF  THE 
PROVINCE  OF  ARAG^N,  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF 
SARAGOSSA.1 

He  was  declared,  by  witnesses,  to  have  taught 
divers  doctrines  which  treated  as  lawful  the  commission 
of  filthy,  obscene,  and  beastly  acts ;  with  using  to  this 
end  the  sacred  robes  and  instruments ;  also  with 

Codice  MS.  Magliabecchiano  variorum  anon,  in  classe 
xxv.,  116,  da  pag.  178  a  pag.  183. 

having 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  71 

having  taught  the  lawfulness  of  detraction,  resent- 
ment towards  one's  neighbor,  anger,  blasphemy;  with 
cursing  God  and  the  saints,  and  with  execrating  the 
consecrated  robes.  He  assigned  for  his  excuse  that 
these  acts  were  the  works  of  the  devil,  who  operated 
as  God's  instrument,  and  that  such  violence  should  be 
regarded  as  necessary.  Moreover,  that  they  were  not 
called  to  do  penance  for  acts  thus  provoked,  neither 
ought  they  to  praise  them  nor  to  confess  them,  but  to 
leave  them  unpunished,  and,  if  scruples  on  account  of 
such  acts  came,  to  make  no  account  of  them,  because 
they  were  done  without  the  consent  of  the  higher 
nature,  but  solely  by  the  force  of  the  devil. 

Moreover,  he  was  suspected  of  having  committed 
acts  of  sensuality  with  seventeen  persons,  and,  besides, 
with  sixteen  between  sex  and  sex,  also  with  abusing 
the  confessional.  Being  questioned  on  these  last  accu- 
sations, he  denied  absolutely  the  commission  of  such 
obscenities.  He  confessed  to  have  esteemed  many  of 
the  above-mentioned  acts  lawful,  by  reason  of  the 
demoniac  pressure  aforesaid,  which,  however,  did  not 
obscure  the  light  of  the  superior  part  of  the  reason 
which  remains  illuminated,  to  consider  these  acts  law- 
ful, in  proof  of  which  he  produced  a  writing  he  had 
made,  which  contained  several  examples  from  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  such  as  Samson,  Jacob,  David, 
Jeremiah,  and  Elias,  all  of  whom,  by  constraint  of  the 
devil,  perpetrated  acts  of  wrath,  sensuality,  of  blas- 
phemy, and  others  like  them. 

In 


72  MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

In  this  writing  are  thirteen  assertions,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  printed  propositions. 

Hence,  a  rule  for  knowing  if  such  constraint  ema- 
nates surely  from  the  devil,  and  if  the  soul  assents  to 
it.  The  rule  is  to  notice  whether  the  soul  is  conscious 
of  not  being  disunited  from  God,  and  that  it  is  not 
abstracted  from  prayer  and  union  with  God,  being 
assured  of  this, —  that  all  things  come  from  God. 

He  says  that,  beyond  this,  a  man  ought  to  make 
no  effort  to  provoke  such  constraint,  but  to  act  entirely 
as  moved  by  God,  to  whom  in  all  things  he  is  submitted. 

He  confessed  to  have  not  counselled  all  kinds  of 
persons  in  this  way,  but  with  some  he  proceeded  differ- 
ently, because  of  the  shame  they  had  for  such  acts,  and 
not  to  frighten  them  from  the  confessional. 

In  the  second  place,  he  taught  another  prayer, 
called  "  Contemplation,"  consisting  of  an  entire  aban- 
donment to  the  will  of  God,  and  in  this  prayer  the 
soul  is  totally  dead  to  itself  and  to  its  own  powers,  and 
does  not  either  do  or  think  but  what  God  wills ;  and, 
though  they  should  experience  from  this  prayer  no 
sensible  advantage,  they  must  not,  on  that  account,  be 
discouraged.  On  this  point,  fourteen  approved  good 
witnesses  testified  that  they  had  been  instructed  by 
him  to  bring  themselves  into  the  presence  of  God 
without  using  any  acts  of  external  devotion,  not  even 
the  sacraments,  and  in  this  way  satisfied  their  highest 
affections  without  knowing  if  they  were  real  affections 
or  merely  sensual  desires. 

The 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  73 

The  remedy  he  proposed  for  the  temptations  which 
might  arise  in  such  exercises  was  to  assume  a  state  of 
indifference  and  passive  submission,  without  renewing 
any  acts  of  will  or  other  powers,  they  being  obstacles 
to  the  quiet  which  the  soul  enjoys.  All  the  powers 
should  passively  concur  in  this  prayer,  which  the 
intellect  cannot  bend  to  its  operations ;  nay,  the 
whole  soul,  by  becoming  dead  to  the  world,  might 
esteem  it  proper  to  go  naked  through  the  Piazza 
Navona. 

Moreover,  he  taught  that,  while  in  such  prayer 
they  ought  not  to  do  reverence  to  the  sacraments  or 
sacred  images,  because  it  impaired  the  effect  of  its 
operations  ;  nay,  he  broke  and  caused  to  be  broken 
the  crucifixes  and  sacred  images  as  impediments  to 
prayer ;  and  if  one  feels  a  desire  to  break  forth  into 
such  acts  of  self-indulgence,  he  ought  not  to  complain 
and  make  resistance  with  thinking  of  Paradise,  or  of 
Hell,  or  of  death,  nor  have  recourse  to  the  saints  for 
succor  or  assistance  in  liberating  him,  because  he 
should  be  in  all  things  and  always  submissive  to  the 
will  of  God,  even  joined  to  Him,  and  when  people 
appeal  to  God  through  the  saints  .as  a  matter  of  habit, 
they  are  like  so  many  parrots  who  scream  but  want 
nothing  ;  and,  further,  that  one  ought  not  to  pray 
God  to  be  delivered  from  sin,  nor  for  any  favor,  nor 
to  be  spared  chastisements,  because  that  would  evince 
a  disposition  to  resist  the  will  of  God  and  to  question 
his  justice. 

That 


74  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

That  a  soul  in  this  prayer  should  not  pray  that  he 
might  again  do  the  will  of  God,  because  that  would  be 
an  exercise  of  free  will,  nor  should  one  pray  God  for 
the  conversion  of  sinners,  nor  for  the  dead,  nor  to  be 
delivered  from  evils. 

That  the  saints  had  not  attained  to  this  perfection, 
because  they  walked  by  sensuous  ways.  Besides,  there 
were  many  other  propositions,  which  are  given  to  the 
press. 

Twenty  witnesses  testified  that  in  these  exercises 
they  did  not  scruple  at  acts  of  impurity,  of  kissing,  and 
of  complaining,  because  the  superior  parts  of  their 
nature  were  rendered  insensible;  and  they  took  the 
communion  without  confessing  themselves  or  other 
preparation,  as  they  would  partake  of  a  cake. 

That  the  performance  of  these  external  acts  of 
devotion  were  for  little  children,  not  for  perfected  men. 
On  this  point,  many  original  letters  of  Molinos  were 
produced,  in  which  he  confessed  his  approval  of  these 
practices,  calling  them  by  various  titles  — the  "  prayer 
of  quietude,"  "  fixed  contemplation,"  "  the  state  of  in- 
difference," "  mystic  death,"  "  holy  idleness." 

Interrogated  upon  this  point,  he  said  that  this  doc- 
trine could  only  be  verified  by  those  who  followed  the 
extraordinary  ways,  and  by  no  others.  He  admitted 
that  all  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  were  useless, 
except  "  thy  will  be  done." 

He  confessed  that  for  many  years   he  had  found 
many  persons  at  the  confessional  without  need  of  abso- 
lution, 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  75 

lution,  because  they  were  perfect  in  the  extraordinary 
ways  of  quiet. 

He  confessed  that  God  wills  the  physical  act  of 
sinning,  —  "  il  materiale  del peccato"  —  denied  having 
taught  that  the  interior  fear  of  offending  God  was  use- 
less, only  the  external  and  sensible  fear;  and  more- 
over, he  declared  that  he  had  taught  that  a  soul 
mystically  dead  is  not  subject  to  divine  precepts,  and 
that  the  divine  law  is  for  sinners  and  not  for  such  souls. 

Moreover,  he  confessed  to  having  taught  that  it 
was  lawful  to  eat  flesh  on  Friday  and  Saturday  in  Lent, 
and  other  prohibited  days,  because  the  annihilated  soul 
is  not  subject  to  this  law.  He  confessed  upon  interro- 
gation that  he  had  never  kept  Lent  here  in  Rome ;  to 
have  frequently  violated  it  on  Fridays  and  Saturdays, 
by  secretly  eating  fish  and  flesh.  He  said  that  making 
vows  to  God  trenched  upon  God's  freedom,  and  there- 
fore was  not  a  good  thing.  He  declared  that  the  mystic 
souls  should  believe  themselves  incapable  of  sin  — 
impeccabili — because  God,  who  operated  in  them, 
was  impeccable.  This  was  confirmed  by  two  letters, 
in  which  he  said  that  God  bound  the  powers  of  the 
soul ;  that  God  operated  in  mystic  souls,  whereby  they 
were  rendered  impeccable. 

Being  interrogated,  he  confessed  to  have  never 
asserted  the  impeccability  of  a  soul  which  does  not  see 
beyond  the  practical  act  of  sinning. 

He  was  declared  to  have  said  that  the  mystic  death 
alone  lifts  the  soul  into  the  beatific  vision  on  the 

earth ; 


76  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

earth ;  this  was  confirmed  by  a  responsive  letter,  in 
which  he  cites  the  example  of  St.  Paul,  who  was  lifted 
into  the  third  heaven,  and  by  another  letter  in  which 
he  asserted  that  to  such  a  soul  may  be  said,  Beati 
mundo  corde,  and  here  on  earth,  and  he  confessed 
it  all. 

It  was  declared  by  more  than  a  hundred  witnesses 
that  he  had  approved  of  private  meetings  (It  con- 
•venticoli)  for  -men  and  women,  although  he  denied 
this.  Moreover,  he  caused  himself  to  be  esteemed  a 
saint,  saying,  when  taken  to  prison  by  the  policeman 
who  bound  him,  "  Know  you  who  I  am  ?  I  am  Doctor 
Molinos.  Oh,  how  many  there  are  in  Rome  who 
would  pay  something  handsome  to  have  the  good 
fortune  to  stand  here  and  speak  to  Doctor  Molinos! 
This  is  a  favor  which  God  has  conferred  upon  you. 
How  many  there  are  who  have  come  to  speak  with  me 
and  I  have  declined  to  receive  them,  causing  them  to 
be  told  that  I  was  not  at  home,  or  that  I  slept!  But  I 
could  not  say  this  to  you.  You  have  at  last  found  your 
guardian  angel."  Then  he  exhorted  him  to  quit  the 
trade  of  a  policeman,  as  dangerous  to  his  salvation,  and 
apply  himself  to  the  comprehension  of  his  dogmas. 
"  Yes,  think  well  of  it,"  and  so  beating  his  hands  now 
and  then  as  he  went  along  the  streets,  dropping  his 
eyes  and  then  raising  them,  he  said  to  the  officer, 
"  What  have  you  concluded  ?" 

It  was  further  deposed  that  he  had  received  and 
much  commended  many  anagrams  on  the  name  of 

Michel 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  77 

Michel  Molinos,  which  were  writ  in  his  praise,  calling 
them  prophetic  and  divine  sayings,  and  among  them 
were  three  in  which  he  was  represented  as  a  holy  man 
of  God  and  the  honey  of  God,  and  such  as  were  most 
acceptable  to  him,  he  corrected  and  sent  to  some 
persons. 

A  friar  said  to  him  that  a  certain  monk  was  a  saint. 
He  replied  that  this  was  a  very  great  mistake,  because 
to  know  a  holy  man  it  required  a  most  holy  man,  and 
he  alone  could  know  it.  To  another  he  pretended  to 
have  received  one  of  his  shirts  all  stained  and  dirty, 
and  said,  "  Keep  this,  because  I  wore  it  on  my  journey 
from  Spain  to  Rome,  and  after  my  death  it  will  be  a 
precious  relic."  Being  interrogated,  he  replied  that,  in 
regard  to  the  policeman,  as  in  regard  to  the  anagrams, 
he  had  not  said  any  of  those  things  to  praise  himself, 
but  by  the  manner  of  his  speech  to  make  a  stronger 
impression  upon  the  policeman  in  favor  of  becoming 
acquainted  with  his  dogmas.  To  the  monk's  state- 
ment, he  replied  that  he  had  intended  to  say  that  no 
one  was  able  to  shine  with  a  brighter  light  than  his, 
which  was  another  way  of  acknowledging  his  own 
nothingness.  As  to  the  shirt,  he  denied  having  given 
it  to  any  one  whomsoever;  that  it  had  been  taken 
from  him. 

Two  witnesses  asserted  that  he  spoke  evil  to  them 
of  the  Holy  Office  (the  Inquisition),  saying  it  was 
incapable  of  comprehending  his  writings.  This  also 
he  denied  having  said. 

Propositions 


78  MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

Propositions  against  the  Holy  Office  attributed 
to  him : 

First.  Superiors  ought  to  be  obeyed  in  external 
things  only;  as  to  interior  things,  God  alone. 

Second.  It  is  a  ridiculous  doctrine  which  says  that 
we  should  regulate  our  consciences  in  submission  to 
bishops  or  prelates. 

Third.  The  exposure  of  the  interior  life  is  a 
secret  fraud. 

Fourth.  In  the  world  there  is  no  tribunal  com- 
petent to  require  a  revelation  of  the  contents  of  letters 
in  matters  of  conscience. 

Being  interrogated,  he  replied,  that  one  ought  not 
to  reveal  interior  acts,  neither  to  superiors  nor  to  pre- 
lates, nor  to  the  Holy  Office,  except  in  judicial  pro- 
ceedings. 

Finally,  he  was  declared  to  have  for  a  long  time 
been  in  the  habit  of  indulging  with  two  ladies  the 
habit  of  kissing  and  embracing  one  another,  of  taking 
immodest  liberties  with  their  persons  respectively;  with 
frequently  passing  naked  through  their  rooms,  with 
rubbing  one  against  another,  with  witnessing  these 
women  frequently  when  urinating,  and  many  other 
things  which  it  would  be  immodest  to  mention.  And 
he  gave  the  women  to  understand  that  such  acts  were 
not  sinful,  but  that  they  ought  to  become  accustomed 
to  them  to  the  end  that  in  the  hour  of  death  they 
might  have  no  scruples. 

Being 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  79 

Being  interrogated  of  these  allegations,  he  admitted 
them  all,  affirming  that  they  were  not  sinful,  because 
they  were  the  work  of  the  senses  without  the  assent  of 
the  superior  nature  which  was  united  to  God. 

Being  interrogated  de  credulitate,  he  replied  that 
he  believed  himself  superior  to  the  danger  of  falling 
into  sin,  because  of  his  habit  of  mortifying  the  flesh  in 
this  way.  He  finally  said  that  he  recognized  the  Holy 
Office  as  superior  to  his  doctrines,  and  that  he  sub- 
mitted himself  in  all  things  to  the  Holy  Mother 
Church,  confessing  that  he  had  erred  and  that  he 
repented. 

He  was  condemned  as  a  dogmatic  heretic  to  close 
imprisonment  for  life  (ad  arctos  carceres  in  perpetuo), 
to  wear  the  penitential  habit  with  the  sign  of  the  cross 
over  his  garments  for  the  rest  of  his  life;  and  the 
further  penance  was  imposed  of  reciting  the  Apostles' 
Creed  every  day,  the  third  part  of  the  Most  Holy 
Rosary  every  week,  to  confess  sacramentally  four  times 
a  year,  and  with  the  license  of  his  confessor  to  partake 
of  the  communion.1 

When  the  record  of  the  trial  and  the  series  of  con- 
demned propositions  had  been  read  through,  Molinos 
was  conducted  to  the  feet  of  the  Commissario  of  the 
Inquisition,  before  whom  he  is  reported  to  have 

J  See  also  Hlsloria  di  Tutte  the  bull  of  Pope  Innocent 
I '  Heresie,  descritta  da  Domenico  XI.  beginning  Ccelestis  Pastor, 
Bernino,  torn,  iv.,  p.  721,  and  1687. 

solemnly 


8o  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

solemnly  abjured  all  the  errors  attributed  to  him  by 
the  tribunal,  after  which  he  received  absolution  from 
the  Commissario,  who  then  required  him  to  remove 
his  monkish  frock  and  clothe  himself  with  the  customary 
penitential  garment  with  the  cross  on  the  back.  He  was 
then  conducted  to  a  cell  in  the  dungeons  of  the  Holy 
Office,  which  he  was  destined  never  to  leave  again  till 
death  mercifully  opened  its  door  for  him. 

The  decree  of  the  Inquisitors  was  immediately  con- 
firmed by  the  bull  (Ccelestis  Pastor)  of  the  Pope,  in 
which  the  sixty-eight  propositions  that  are  alleged  to 
have  been  extracted  from  the  writings  of  Michel  de 
Molinos  and  condemned  as  heretical  were  recited.1 

1  Appendix  C. 


CHAPTER    VII. 
Did  Molinos  abjure  ?  —  His  trial  a  mockery. 

IT  is  idle  to  discuss  the  fairness  of  a  trial  conducted 
like  this  in  secrecy,  and  by  a  tribunal  constituted, 
like  the  so-called  "  Sacred  Congregation,"  not  to  judge, 
but  to  condemn ;  but  there  are  some  features  of  it 
which  deserve  greater  prominence  than  we  have  given 
them  in  our  hasty  narrative. 

First.  None  of  the  propositions  condemned  purport 
to  be  literal  citations  from  any  writing  of  Molinos,  nor 
is  the  context  of  any  proposition  given,  if  there  is 
any  in  which  the  words  of  Molinos  are  used,  by  the 
light  of  which  only  it  could  be  fairly  interpreted.  In- 
deed, Father  Mabillon,  who  was  in  Rome  when  Mo- 
linos was  arrested,  tells  us  that  it  was  there  understood 
that  Molinos  was  not  condemned  for  anything  found 
in  his  published  writings,  but  for  the  contents  of  let- 
ters written  to  divers  persons,  or  at  least  for  depraving 
expositions  of  those  doctrines  to  his  friends.1 

1  "Michel Molinos, Hispanus    bus moralibus doctrinam,  corn- 
presbyter,  ob  suspectam  in  re-    prehensus  est  jussu  Romanaa 

The 
6 


82  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

The  writer  of  Several  Letters  from  Italy  concern- 
ing the  Quietists  treats  all  the  stories  of  lewdness  attrib- 
uted to  Molinos  as  impudent  calumnies,  set  only  to 
blast  him  and  his  doctrine,  and  that  no  proof  was 
ever  brought  of  it.  D'Alembert  speaks  of  him  also  as 
"  a  great  director,  and  yet  a  good  man,  for  which  the 
Pope  did  him  justice, — two  titles  for  making  a  man 
many  enemies."  l 

Second.  The  name  of  no  witness  is  given  upon  the 
authority  of  whom  all  the  allegations  of  scandalous 
conduct  and  teaching  are  made,  nor  was  the  accused 
permitted  to  confront  them,  or  even  to  know  their 
names. 

Third.  Not  one  of  the  twelve  thousand,  or,  as  some 
authorities  have  it,  twenty  thousand,  letters  found  in 
his  possession,  and  which,  not  his  books,  are  made  the 
chief  witnesses  against  him,  are  produced  or  quoted. 
Had  they  furnished  the  proofs  of  the  scandalous  life 

inquisitionis,    aliis  aliter  atque  rem  ad  Hispanica  inquisitione 

aliter  de  eo  opiniontibus.  Liber  proscriptus  est,  Romana  asgre 

ejus  qui  Manuductio  Spiritualis  ferente,  quod  occupatum  esset 

inscribitur,  hispanice  primum,  ejus  rei  ab  aliis  judicium)  sed 

deinde  italice  multoties  Romae  ob  scriptas  ad  diversas  episto- 

editus      est,      libellis     scriptis  las,  aut  certe  ob  pravas  ipsius 

atque        editis       impugnatus,  sententiae     interpretationes     a 

quos  in   indicem   censores  re-  suis    affectis   factas,   in   carce- 

tulerunt.      Inde    inferunt  con-  rem   fuisse  conjectam   ex  quo 

jectores,   Molinum,  non  ob  li-  non  facile   se  extricabit." — Iter 

bri  vulgati  doctrinam  (tametsi  Italicum,  Jul.  10,  1685. 

is  post  comprehensum  aucto-  »  See  the  letter  cited  infra. 

charged 


MOLINOS   THE   QU1ETIST.  83 

charged  in  the  semi-official  report  of  his  trial,  why 
were  the  Inquisitors  two  years  in  establishing  his  guilt, 
and  why  was  not  the  Christian  world  satisfied  of  the 
justice  of  his  condemnation,  by  the  publication  of  at 
least  one  of  these  inculpating  documents  ? 

Fourth.  Molinos  is  represented  as  having  confessed 
that  he  had  been  a  false  guide,  and  to  have  abjured 
the  errors  imputed  to  him. 

There  is  abundant  reason  to  believe  this  a  most 
wanton  falsehood.  Segneri  himself,  whose  testimony 
to  the  firmness  of  Molinos  may  be  taken  au  pied  de 
la  lettre,  writing  to  the  Grand  Duke  Cosmo  just  seven- 
teen days  after  the  scene  at  the  Church  of  the  Mi- 
nerva, on  the  3d  of  September,  says  : 

"  I  am  profoundly  sensible  of  the  benign  attention 
your  Highness  has  shown  in  sending  me,  by  a  special 
messenger,  the  proceedings  on  the  trial  of  the  unhappy 
Molinos,  of  whom  it  grieves  me  to  see  so  many  signs 
of  obstinacy.  This,  in  him,  is  the  extreme  of  wicked- 
ness, and  all  proceeds  from  the  profound  pride  which 
has  led  him  to  change  the  spirit  of  the  Church  from 
one  into  another  "  (da  uno  in  un  altro). ' 

No  one  was  likely  to  be  better  informed  than 
Segneri,  the  chosen  champion  of  his  Order  in  the  war 
against  Quietism — a  war  upon  the  result  of  which  his 
own  liberty  was,  in  a  measure,  depending.2  No  one 

1  Lettere  inedite  dl  Paolo  Seg-    condemnation  of  Molinos  was 
nerl,  p.  102.  Segneri's      Concordla     tra     la 

2  Not  till  four  years  after  the    Fatica  e  la  Quiete  taken  out  of 

was 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 


was  more  interested  than  he  in  knowing  and  proclaim- 
ing the  surrender  of  his  enemy.  His  information,  how- 
ever, was  that  all  the  talk  and  all  the  givings  out  about 
the  abjuration  of  Molinos  were  morally  of  a  piece  with 
the  whole  trial, — a  pious  fraud. 

If  Molinos  confessed  and  abjured,  when  did  he  do 
it?  Before  or  after  the  condemnation?  Did  he  resist 
imprisonment,  and  the  torture,  and  public  shame  for 
two  years  before  he  recanted,  and  was  his  public  con- 
demnation deferred  until  he  was  enfeebled  by  imprison- 
ment and  other  means  familiar  to  the  Inquisition,  or 
was  he  incarcerated  for  life  because  he  would  not 
abjure  ? 


the  Index  and  allowed  to  be 
published  at  Rome.  In  one 
of  his  letters  to  the  Grand 
Duke  Cosmo  from  Rome,  Feb- 
ruary 24,  1691,  Father  Seg- 
neri  writes  :  ' '  We  were  in 
Rome  on  Thursday,  the  23d. 
Here,  by  good  luck,  I  found 
Signer  Cardinal  Colonna,  one 
of  the  Conclave, — another  di- 
vine favor.  To-day  I  spoke 
with  him.  I  found  him  in  the 
best  of  humor,  and  he  told  me 
how  to  conduct  in  the  diffi- 
culties which  beset  me  in  conse- 
quence of  the  censure  of  the 
Concordia."  —  Lett  ere  ined.  di 
Paolo  Segneri,  p.  144. 

On'the  I7th  of  March,  three 


weeks  after  the  foregoing,  Seg- 
neri writes  again:  "On  Sun- 
day I  completed  the  revision 
of  the  Concordia,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Master  of  the  Sacred 
Palace  and  of  Father  Fabri, 
Conventual  and  Consultor  of 
the  Holy  Office,  who  were 
the  two  revisers  assigned  by 
the.  Holy  Congregation.  From 
both  I  received  every  courtesy, 
while  all  was  settled  in  my  own 
way.  But  this  would  not  have 
been  so  easily  accomplished 
except  by  personal  presence. 
Thus  the  first  purpose  of  my 
coming  to  Rome  is  accom- 
plished."— Ibid.,  p.  149. 

Bernino, 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  85 

Bernino,  a  contemporary  witness,  and  one  who  had 
difficulty  in  finding  words  strong  enough  to  express  his 
detestation  of  Molinos,  admits,  in  his  History  of  Her- 
esies, that  it  was  not  until  after  twenty-two  months' 
imprisonment  that  Molinos  showed  any  disposition  to 
abjure.1 

But  why  was  he  kept  in  prison  after  he  had  abjured, 
when  if  enlarged  he  could  have  done  so  much  more 
than  any  other  person  —  more  even  than  Pope  or 
Inquisitors  themselves  —  to  disabuse  his  followers  and 
bring  them  back  from  their  delusions  ?  If  he  abjured, 
why  have  we  not  the  fact  over  his  signature ;  why  was 
never  a  line  from  his  pen  allowed  to  reach  his  disciples 
or  the  public  from  the  time  he  returned  to  his  prison  ? 
Why  were  none  but  his  jailer  and  persecutors  per- 
mitted to  see  him  or  hold  any  intercourse  whatever 
with  him  for  the  ten  long  years  that  he  languished 
in  confinement  before  death  came  to  his  release  ?  If 
he  had  seen  the  error  of  his  ways,  why  prevent  him 
so  carefully  from  using  the  remnant  of  his  days  in 
opening  the  eyes  which  he  had  darkened  by  his 
counsels?  Probably  no  single  one  of  the  Inquisitors 
who  had  condemned  Galileo  a  few  years  before,  for 
teaching  the  Copernican  theory  in  regard  to  the 
earth's  motion  around  the  sun,  had  any  doubt  that  he 

1  "  Scorsi  ventidue  mesi  di  essi." — Historia  di  Tutte  I'Her- 
carcerazione,  provati  li  delitti,  esie,  descritta  da  Domenico  Ber- 
e  contestati  gli  errori,  egli  mos-  nino,fin  al  anno  1700,  vol.  iv., 
trossi  disposto  all  abjura  di  p.  721. 

was 


86  MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

was  teaching  the  truth,  or  that  his  faith  in  that  theory 
was  unshaken  by  their  persecutions  and  condemnation 
or  his  own  abjuration  of  it ;  yet,  when  he  had  abjured, 
he  was  at  once  allowed  to  leave  Rome  and  to  write 
and  publish  what  he  pleased,  providing  it  did  not  favor 
the  Copernican  heresy.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  they 
would  have  been  less  worldly  wise  in  their  treatment 
of  this  comparatively  unprotected  priest — or  less  alive 
to  the  advantages  of  his  enlargement  as  a  means  of 
vindicating  their  treatment  of  him. 

Fr.  Bruys,  the  author  of  L'Histoire  des  Papes,  as 
published  in  1732-3,  and  while  authentic  information 
from  living  witnesses  of  this  transaction  was  accessible, 
speaks  of  the  firmness  of  Molinos  in  defying  the  tor- 
ture of  the  Inquisitors  as  an  undisputed  fact  in  his 
day.  He  says : 

"The  Inquisition  put  many  of  these  sectaries  (the 
Quietists)  in  prison,  and  among  them  Doctor  Molinos, 
one  of  their  chiefs.  They  gave  him  the  question  to 
make  him  disclose  his  accomplices.  *  *  *  To 
remedy  the  disorders  occasioned  by  them,  the  Pope 
created  a  Congregation  specially  to  attend  to  this  busi- 
ness. *  *  *  Nevertheless,  Molinos  remained  firm 
in  these  opinions,  despite  the  torments  to  which  the 
Holy  Office  subjected  him,  to  extort  from  him  an 
abjuration  of  his  impieties.  The  Pope  pushed  the  busi- 
ness with  much  warmth,  but  Doctor  Molinos  and  his 
adherents  defended  themselves  with  such  subtlety  as 
to  surprise  the  cardinals  and  theologians  who  exam- 
ined 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  87 

ined  them.  Finally,  the  General  Congregation  of  the 
Inquisition  gave  their  sentence,  by  which  Molinos  was 
condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  and  to  abjure 
sixty-eight  propositions,  which  are  reported  in  the 
Mercures  for  the  month  of  October,  1687.  One  of 
these  writers  protested,  in  the  month  following,  that 
he  only  reported  them  to  satisfy  public  curiosity,  and 
not  to  propagate  heresy.  'For,'  added  he,  'one  needs 
to  have  a  disordered  mind  to  find  anything  to  their 
taste  in  this  jumble  of  propositions,  which,  in  my  judg- 
ment, are  falsely  attributed  to  Molinos.  According  to 
all  appearances,  some  good  Jesuit  father  must  have 
amused  himself  in  imagining  all  these  absurd  impi- 
eties, and  God  knows  what  these  pious  souls  are 
capable  of  doing.  Has  one  ever  seen  more  contradic- 
tions? I  think  not;  and  I  maintain  that  Molinos  was 
never  capable  of  such  maunderings.  If  he  were,  what 
is  the  good  of  making  such  a  noise  at  Rome  over  a 
crazy  man  ?  But  when  we  wish  to  destroy  a  person, 
nothing  must  be  neglected.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
the  struggle  is  with  a  stronger  party.' 

"Many  others  were  also  persuaded  of  the  inno- 
cence of  Molinos,  and,  in  fact,  to  believe  him  guilty 
of  the  horrors  imputed  to  him  is  to  suppose  that  this 
doctor  was  one  of  those  visionaries  who,  even  when  not 
sleeping,  reason  like  dreamers,  without  any  coherence 
in  their  words  or  principles,  or  else  that  he  was  simply 
an  impostor  who  wished  to  gratify  his  vanity,  if  nothing 
worse,  in  persuading  devout  people  of  the  most 

strange 


88  MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

strange  and  convenient  paradoxes,  such  as  that  the 
most  sensual  pollutions  contribute  to  the  greatest 
advances  in  the  way  of  purification  and  illumination. 
It  is  at  least  certain  that  the  principles  which  are 
attributed  to  him  renew  spiritual  and  carnal  origenism, 
as  any  one  will  admit  who  has  read  the  History  of 
Origenism,  by  Father  Doucin.  It  is  none  the  less  true 
that  the  Jesuits  who  cry  so  loud  against  the  theory  of 
Molinos  accommodate  themselves  very  readily  to  his 
morals  in  their  practice.  This  we  may  see  now  in  the 
scandalous  history  of  the  Jesuit  Girard  and  his  devoted 
Cadiere."1 

1  Histoire  des  Popes,  vol.  v.,  p.  391. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

The  further  persecution  of  the  Quietists  —  The  Secrecy  of  the  Confessional 

violated  —  The  Pope  disciplined  for  suspected  Quietism  — 

The  Death  of  Molinos. 

AT  the  close  of  the  melancholy  scenes  at  the  Church 
of  the  Minerva  on  the  3d  of  September,  1687,  the 
vast  throng  which  had  witnessed  them,  leisurely  retired 
to  their  respective  homes,  soon  to  forget,  in  the  dis- 
tracting pleasures  and  cares  of  their  daily  life,  the 
wretched  priest  who  had  been  tormented  and  blasted 
before  them  to  make  a  Roman  holiday.  Molinos,  too, 
retired,  not  to  his  books,  and  his  friends,  and  his  cher- 
ished duties,  but  to  the  dungeon  which  for  some  two 
years  already  had  been  his  cheerless  home.  Till  now 
he  may  have  indulged  some  illusions  in  regard  to  his 
fate.  He  knew  he  had  warm,  faithful,  and  powerful 
friends,  and  he,  better  than  any  one  else,  perhaps, 
knew  to  what  extent  the  Pope  had  faith  in  the  purity 
of  his  life,  the  spirituality  of  his  teachings,  and  the 
cruel  injustice  of  his  punishment.  But  when  he  heard 
the  sentence  of  the  Inquisition,  he  must  have  realized 

that 


go  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

that  he  was  returning,  like  Galileo,  some  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  before,  to  a  cell  "which  he  was 
only  to  exchange  for  that  narrower  one  which  opens 
daily  and  is  destined  to  receive  us  all."1  No  one  now 
ventured  a  word  for  this  "son  of  perdition."  As 
soon  as  it  appeared  that  the  arms  of  his  friends  were 
shortened  and  powerless  to  save,  there  was  a  general 
sauve  qui  peut  among  his  disciples.  Every  pulse  of 
sympathy  was  suppressed,  every  compromising  scrap 
of  a  letter  or  paper  was  sought  for  and  burned,  and 
silence  was  the  only  friend  now  left  to  plead  the  cause 
of  Molinos. 

The  Jesuits  followed  up  their  advantage.  They 
compelled  everyone  who  had  been  known  or  suspected 
of  consorting  with  Molinos  to  join  in  and  swell  the  cry 
of  execration  against  Quietism,  which  was  started  by 
the  rabble  in  the  Church  of  the  Minerva  on  the  3d  of 
September.  The  mad  dog  had  been  taken  and 
chained  up.  The  next  thing  was  to  muzzle  or  destroy 
those  whom  he  had  bitten.  Curious  revelations  fol- 
lowed. The  trail  of  the  serpent  was  traced  into  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  Vatican.  Only  three  days  after 
the  sentence  of  Molinos,  Estiennot,  who  is  still  our 
best  witness  (though  it  will  be  remarked  that  his  views 
of  Molinos  and  his  doctrines  have  undergone  important 
modifications  since  the  latter  was  officially  proclaimed 
z.filius  perditionis),  thus  unbosoms  himself  to  his  St. 
Maur  correspondent : 

1  Galileo  to  Cardinal  Barberini,  Dec.  17,  1631. 

"ROME, 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  91 

"ROME,  Sept.  30,  1687. 

«  *  *  *  A  writing  on  the  subject  of  the  Quiet- 
ists  has  appeared  here  and  been  denounced  to  the 
Holy  Office.  It  was  written  by  the  Marquis  de  Pal- 
lavicini,  the  master  of  the  chamber  of  Cardinal  Cibo. 
He  has  been  cited,  but  as  he  wrote  but  what  the  cardinal 
dictated,  his  Eminence  has  wished  him  to  father  the 
work,  and  not  avow  the  cardinal's  authorship.  The 
Marquis  was  not  willing  to  do  this.  Thereupon  his 
Eminence  dismissed  him,  and  he  has  retired.  Many 
other  persons  are  in  trouble  with  this  Quietism,  to 
whom,  perhaps,  out  of  respect  to  their  rank  and  char- 
acter, nothing  will  be  said.  It  is  inconceivable  how 
many  people  who  pass  for  being  clever  have  given  in 
to  these  illusions.  Monsignor  d'Estrees  was  one  of 
the  first  to  get  his  eyes  open,  and  has  pushed  things 
most  vigorously.  Monsignor  the  Cardinal  Ottoboni,1 
who,  being  bishop  of  Bresse,  had  found  these  illuminati 
in  his  diocese  doing  a  great  deal  of  mischief  and  giving 
him  embarrassment,  has  also  declared  strongly  against 
them,  and  not  spared  them. 

it  *  *  *  They  say  that  Cardinal  Petrucci  is  at 
work  upon  his  justification,or  perhaps  a  retraction  of  the 
opinions  found  in  his  letters  and  writings,  but  nothing 
has  yet  appeared  that  I  have  seen.  The  Commission- 
ers who  have  been  sent  to  his  diocese  have  not  yet 
reported.  It  is  only  known  that  deaconesses  and 

1  Afterwards  Pope  Alexander  VIII. 

priestesses 


92  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

priestesses  were   found  there.      God  grant  there  was 
nothing  worse." 

A  little  later,  Estiennot  writes  again  : 

"  ROME,  Oct.  31,  1687. 

ee  *  *  *  They  jo  not  find  much  against  the 
morals  of  Cardinal  Petrucci ;  the  evil  is  in  his  doctrine. 
An  Augustine  monk  was  taken  yesterday  to  the  prisons 
of  the  Holy  Office ;  I  cannot  give  his  name.  All  we 
know  is  that  it  was  for  Quietism. 

"  The  Rev.  Father  Appiani,  Jesuit,  has  been 
judged  and  condemned  to  three  years'  close  confine- 
ment, during  which  time  he  is  to  see  no  one,  not  leave 
his  chamber,  have  neither  fire  nor  lights,  to  fast  on 
bread  and  water  Fridays.  Besides  this,  he  is  to  spend 
seven  years  in  the  ordinary  prison.  He  is  thought  to 
have  got  off  at  a  bargain.  They  have  also  imprisoned 
two  famous  Quietists,  who  dogmatized." 

Father  Appiani  did  not  trouble  them  long.  He 
went  mad,  and  died  very  soon  after  his  sentence. 

But  the  audacity  of  the  Jesuits  was  not  exhausted 
by  the  imprisonment  of  Molinos  and  the  extirpation  of 
his  conspicuous  disciples,  nor  even  by  the  humiliation 
of  bishops  and  cardinals  and  cardinal  secretaries  of 
state  who  had  been  suspected  of  countenancing  him. 
They  did  not  shrink  from  bearding  the  Pope  himself  in 
the  Vatican,  and  putting  him  upon  his  purgation.  It 
is  authentically  stated  that  a  committee  of  Inquisitors 

waited 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  1ST,  93 

waited  upon  the  old  Pope,  already  in  the  last  year  of  his 
life,  to  test  his  soundness  on  the  all-absorbing  ques- 
tion. The  secrets  of  the  confessional  even  were  not 
respected  in  this  war  of  extermination.  But  such  facts 
are  best  stated  by  contemporary  witnesses. 

"Molinos1  was  clapped  up  by  the  Inquisition  in 
May,  1685,  and  so  an  end  was  put  to  all  discourses 
relating  to  him,  and  in  this  silence  the  business  of  the 
Quietists  was  laid  to  sleep  till  the  pth  of  February, 
1689;  then,  of  a  sudden,  it  broke  out  again  in  a  much 
more  surprising  manner.  The  Count  Vespiriani  and 
his  lady,  Don  Paulo  Rocci  (confessor  to  the  Prince 
Borghese)  and  some  of  his  family,  with  several  others, 
in  all  seventy  persons,  were  clapped  up,  among  whom 
many  were  highly  esteemed,  both  for  their  learning 
and  piety.  The  things  laid  to  the  charge  of  the 
churchmen  were  their  neglecting  to  say  their  breviary, 
and  for  the  rest  they  were  accused  for  their  going  to 
the  communion  without  going  at  every  time  first  to 
confession ;  and,  in  a  word,  it  was  said  that  they  neg- 
lected all  exterior  parts  of  their  religion,  and  gave 
themselves  up  wholly  to  solitude  and  inward  prayer. 

"The  Countess  Vespiriani  made  a  great  noise  of 
this  matter,  for,  she  said,  she  had  never  revealed  her 
method  of  devotion  to  any  mortal  but  to  her  confessor, 
and  so  it  was  not  possible  it  could  come  to  their  knowl- 
edge any  other  way  but  by  his  betraying  that  secret; 

1  See  The  Substance  of  Several  Letters  sent  from  Italy  concerning 
the  Quietists,  supplement  to  The  Spiritual  Guide. 

and 


94  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

and,  she  said,  it  was  time  to  give  over  going  to  con- 
fession if  priests  made  this  use  of  it,  to  discover  those 
who  trusted  their  secretest  thoughts  to  them.  And, 
therefore,  she  said  that  in  all  time  coming  she  would 
make  her  confessions  only  to  God.  This  had  got  vent, 
and  I  heard  it  talked  of  up  and  down  Rome ;  so  the 
Inquisitors  thought  it  more  fitting  to  dismiss  her  and 
her  husband  than  to  give  any  occasion  to  lessen  the 
credit  of  confession.  They  were,  therefore,  let  out  of 
prison,  but  they  were  bound  to  appear  whensoever 
they  should  be  called  for.  I  cannot  express  to  you  the 
consternation  that  appeared,  both  in  Rome  and  many 
other  parts  of  Italy,  when,  in  a  month's  time,  about 
two  hundred  persons  were  put  in  the  Inquisition, 
and  all  of  a  sudden  a  method  of  devotion  that  had 
passed  up  and  down  Italy  for  the  highest  elevation 
to  which  mortals  could  aspire,  was  found  to  be  her- 
etical, and  the  chief  promoters  of  it  were  shut  up  in 
prison. 

"  But  the  most  surprising  part  of  the  whole  story 
was  that  the  Pope  himself  came  to  be  suspected  as  a 
favorer  of  this  new  heresy,  so  that,  on  the  I3th  of 
February,  some  were  deputed  by  the  Court  of  the 
Inquisition  to  examine  him,  not  in  the  quality  of 
Christ's  vicar  or  St.  Peter's  successor,  but  in  the 
single  quality  of  Benedict  Odescalchi.  What  passed 
in  that  audience  was  too  great  a  secret  for  me  to  be 
able  to  penetrate  into.  *  *  *  A  strict  inquiry  was 
made  into  all  the  nunneries  of  Rome,  for  most  of  their 

directors 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  95 

directors  and  confessors  were  found  to  be  engaged  in 
this  new  method.  It  was  found  that  the  Carmelites, 
the  nuns  of  the  Conception  of  the  Palestrino  and 
Albano,  were  wholly  given  up  to  prayer  and  contem- 
plation, and  that,  instead  of  their  beads  and  their 
hours,  and  the  other  devotions  to  saints  and  images, 
they  were  much  alone,  and  oft  in  the  exercise  of 
mental  prayer.  *  *  *  I  am  told  that  men  are  now 
more  puzzled  in  their  thoughts  with  relation  to  the 
business  of  Molinos  than  ever.  It  was  visible  that  his 
abjuration  was  only  a  pretended  thing,  for  in  effect  he 
has  abjured  nothing ;  his  party  believe  that  they  are 
very  numerous,  not  only  in  Rome,  Italy,  Spain,  France, 
and  in  all  these  parts  of  the  world,  but  that  they  have 
many  followers  even  in  America  itself.  One  sees  them, 
now,  in  almost  all  the  churches  in  Rome,  some  of 
them  praying  in  corners  with  their  hands  and  eyes 
lifted  up  to  heaven,  and  all  in  tears  and  sighs,  which 
was  no  small  trouble  to  those  who  thought  they  had 
quite  routed  them,  but  find  they  were  not  so  much 
quashed  as  it  was  thought  they  would  have  been  by 
the  mock  triumph  that  was  made  upon  Molinos,  nor 
did  they  believe  a  word  of  those  reports  that  were 
spread  of  his  lewdness. 

"  They  said  there  was  no  proof  ever  brought  of  it, 
and  that  there  are  many  thousands  in  Rome  of  both 
sexes  that  conversed  much  with  him,  that  say  these 
stories  that  were  given  out  concerning  him  are  impu- 
dent calumnies,  set  only  to  blast  him  and  his  doctrine  ; 

and 


96  MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

and  the  truth  is  this  seems  much  to  be  confirmed  by 
the  bull  that  condemns  his  books  and  his  doctrine,  in 
which  no  mention  is  made  of  his  ill  life  and  hypocrisy, 
which  had  been  very  probably  done  if  the  matter  had 
been  well  proved  ;  since  this  would  not  only  have  satis- 
fied people,  but  would  have  very  much  confirmed  the 
accusations  of  these  horrid  opinions  that  are  laid  to  his 
charge,  which  would  have  appeared  with  much  evidence 
if  it  had  been  found  that  his  life  had  agreed  with  those 
tenets  ;  for  though  it  had  been  a  just  inference  to  con- 
clude him  guilty  of  those  things  because  they  were 
charged  on  him  in  the  bull,  yet  one  may  reckon  it 
almost  a  sure  inference  that  he  is  not  guilty  of  them 
since  the  bull  does  not  tax  him  for  them." 

On  the  I2th  of  August,  of  the  year  1689,  in  which 
this  memorable  visit  of  the  Inquisitors  took  place,  Pope 
Innocent  XI.  died,  and  with  him  the  last  hope,  if  any 
continued  to  be  indulged,  of  the  release  of  Molinos.  The 
last  few  years  of  his  life  the  Pope  spent  in  the  greatest 
seclusion,  even  holding  his  consistories  in  his  chamber. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Cardinal  Ottoboni,  who  took  the 
title  of  Alexander  VIII.,  on  the  i6th  of  October,  1689, 
and  in  the  eighty-first  year  of  his  age.  He  was  the 
cardinal  who,  as  bishop  of  Bresse,  we  have  seen  two 
years  earlier  hunting  the  Quietists  out  of  his  diocese, 
and  who  signalized  his  accession  to  the  pontifical  throne 
by  such  scandalous  nepotism  as  to  make  it  the  talk  of 
all  Europe.  Even  the  prudent  and  gentle  Mabillon 
did  not  scruple  to  make  it  the  subject  of  an  indignant 

protest 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 


97 


protest  in  his  correspondence  with  Rome,1  and  Pasquin 
gave  wings  to  the  scandal  by  the  remark,  "Qu'il  aurait 
mieux  valu  pour  I'Eglise  etre  so.  niece  que  safille" 

Of  Molinos  personally,  nothing  further  is  known, 
except  that  he  continued  to  drag  out  a  solitary  exist- 
ence in  the  little  cell,  piccolo,  stanza,  to  which  he  was 
conducted  from  the  church,  for  another  ten  years, 
practically  as  isolated  from  the  world  as  if  in  his  grave, 
and  died  on  Holy  Innocents'  Day,  December  28,  1696, 
in  the  yoth  year  of  his  age.* 


THE  doctrine  of  Quietism  in  its  day  involved 
as  important  interests  as  any  of  the  theological  differ- 
ences of  our  own  time ;  it  divided  church  and  state ;  tons 
of  books  were  written  about  it,  which  are  now  forgotten, 


1  "  Quod  ut  feliciter  tandem 
exsequatur,  Deum  Opt.  Max. 
votis,  quibus  possum,  inter- 
pellate non  desino :  an  vero 
effectus  votis  responsurus  sit, 
adhuc  in  anticipiti  res  pendet. 
Illud  sane  optassem  quod  apud 
te,  vir  eminentissime,  de- 
ponere  non  verebor,  ut  ab 
ecclesise  negotiis  gerendis, 
et  splendido  aliquo  recte  facto, 
potuis  quam  ab  amplificatione 
families  suae  Pontificatum 
suum  inchoasset.  Id  enim 


et  spem  omnium  quam  op- 
timam  ubique  de  ipso  con- 
ceperant,  confirmasset  et  ala- 
cres  ad  majora  speranda  effe- 
cisset.  Verum  quid  modo  a 
prasmatura  nepotis  juvenis 
promotione  et  ab  ilia  turba 
nepotum  in  urbem  confluen- 
tium  expectandum  sit,  sane 
non  facile  est  conjicere." — Cor- 
re'spondance  intdite  de  Mabillon 
et  de  Montfaucon,  vol.  ii.,  p.  205. 
2  Hist,  di  Tutte  I'Heresie  da 
Bernino,  vol.  iv.,  p.  721. 

and 


98  MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST. 

and  even  the  questions  it  involved  are  now  scarcely 
known.  Nevertheless,  they  were  not  unimportant,  nor 
are  they  unworthy  of  the  curiosity  of  the  Christian 
student.  To  what  extent  the  soul  may  detach  itself 
from  the  earth,  and  by  what  road  of  purification  it 
may  most  readily  and  completely  unite  itself  with  God, 
will  always  be  living  problems  and  of  incalculable 
importance.  The  doctrine  of  Quietude  or  Passivity 
was  no  invention  of  Molinos,  but  was  the  essence  of 
mysticism,  not  only  of  the  early  Christian  church,  but 
more  or  less  definite  traces  of  it  may  be  discerned  in 
the  religions  of  all  the  oriental  nations  which  have  left 
a  literature.  Even  the  Stoic  philosophy  was  but  a 
pagan  phase  of  Quietism,  while  the  Epicurean  was  the 
pagan  phase  of  the  church  which  denounced  Quiet- 
ism. The  one  taught  endurance,  and  faith  in  the 
final  triumph  of  what  was  for  the  best.  The  other 
taught  a  reliance  upon  human  expedients  as  the 
highest  security  for  human  happiness,  and  a  cor- 
responding mistrust  of  any  superior  guaranties.  Till 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  Latin  church  had  success- 
fully utilized  this  school  of  mystics.  It  canonized 
Theresa,  Francois  de  Sales,  and  John  of  the  Cross,  who 
taught  as  unqualified  Quietism  as  Molinos  and  Madame 
Guyon,  whom  a  few  centuries  later  it  imprisoned,  and 
Fenelon,  whom  it  degraded. 

This  difference  in  the  treatment  of  the  early  and  of 
the  later  mystics  does  not  imply  any  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  Latin  church,  any  more  than  a  change  of 

our 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST.  99 

our  clothing  with  the  change  of  the  season  imports  a 
change  in  the  person  that  wears  it.  It  was  easy  for 
the  church  to  utilize  the  visions  of  St.  Theresa,  the 
raptures  of  St.  Francis,  and  the  morbid  taste  for  suffer- 
ing of  St.  John  of  the  Cross,  for  they  strengthened  the 
hierarchy  by  illustrating  the  power  of  religious  feeling, 
but  unaccompanied  by  any  effort  to  control  or  direct, 
and  still  less  to  curtail  that  power.  It  was  not  so  easy, 
indeed  it  was  found  impossible,  to  utilize  the  intensely 
subjective  speculations  of  the  Quietists  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  who,  unlike  their  predecessors,  car- 
ried out  the  mystical  dogmas  to  their  logical  conse- 
quences. Like  the  others,  they  held  their  intercourse 
directly  with  God,  but  unlike  them,  they  threw  away 
much  of  the  machinery  of  the  church  through  which 
that  intercourse  had  been  held,  and  upon  which  the 
church  depended  largely  for  its  power  and  authority. 
If  the  penitent  could  go  directly  to  God  with  his 
trouble,  and  feel  sure  of  a  response  directly  from  God, 
what  need  of  images,  pilgrimages,  rosaries,  crosses, 
relics,  ashes  of  the  dead,  dry  bones,  consecrated  rags, 
and  all  the  other  innumerable  contrivances  by  which 
the  faithful  are  held  in  the  thrall  of  the  church? 

This  Molinos  mysticism  savored  too  much  of  the 
German  mysticism  of  the  fourteenth  century,  which 
contributed  so  largely  to  undermine  the  power  of 
Rome,  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation. It  was,  therefore,  as  natural  for  the  church  to 
silence  Molinos  as  it  was  for  it  to  canonize  St.  Theresa. 

The 


ico  MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

The  monk  was  logical,  the  nun  was  not.  The  monk 
was  polarized  positively  and  the  nun  negatively.  To 
an  invalid  whom  a  zephyr  would  refresh,  a  breeze  might 
prove  fatal. 

Molinos  was  unquestionably  a  reformer.  The  dis- 
cussions which  he  provoked  and  the  doctrines  to  which 
he  became  a  martyr  were  an  important  contribution  to 
the  depaganization  of  religion  in  Europe.  He  failed 
where  monachism  failed,  though  in  a  different  way. 
The  monk  sought  to  escape  from  temptation  by  taking 
refuge  in  the  cloister  and  the  desert.  The  Quietists 
sought  the  same  end  by  an  annihilation  of  the  appe- 
tites which  breed  temptation.  Instead  of  resisting  the 
propensities  of  the  natural  man,  he  delivered  the 
natural  man  up  rather  a  prey  than  what  he  should 
be  —  a  sacrifice.  Both  overlooked  the  vital  fact  that 
wherever  man  can  go,  Satan  can  follow  him,  and  that 
whatever  may  be  the  spiritual  plane  we  occupy,  our 
temptations  to  sin  will  be  proportioned  to  our  powers 
of  resistance ;  that  every  incident  in  our  lives  is  but  a 
providential  trial  of  our  faith ;  in  other  words,  it  asks 
us  the  simple  question  whether,  in  what  we  do  or  leave 
undone  in  regard  to  it,  we  will  do  what  we  believe  to  be 
right,  or  what  we  do  not  believe  to  be  right;  whether 
we  will  yield  to  the  appetites  of  the  natural  man,  or 
whether  we  will  hear  the  voice  of  God  when  He  calls, 
and  His  knock  when  at  our  door.  Man's  only  formida- 
ble enemies  are  those  of  his  own  household.  To  flee 
from  the  world  and  its  duties,  or  to  destroy  the  weapons 

God 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  101 

God  has  provided  us  for  resisting  them,  comes  to  the 
same  thing  in  the  end.  Life  on  earth  is  a  perpetual 
struggle  between  the  forces  of  good  and  evil,  and  any 
attempt  to  avoid  the  struggle  is  a  fatal  cowardice,  sure 
to  result  sooner  or  later  in  capitulation  to  the  enemy. 
In  looking  directly  to  God,  and  not  to  middle  men, 
for  light  and  grace,  Molinos  was  in  advance  of  his 
church,  and  it  was  that  faith  which  made  him  strong 
and  gave  him  throngs  of  followers.  In  neglecting  to 
appropriate  such  light  and  grace  to  the  duties  of  life ; 
in  rolling  his  talent  up  in  a  napkin,  instead  of  using  it 
in  his  Master's  business ;  in  treating  man's  creation 
rather  as  a  freak  of  the  Almighty  than  as  a  means  for 
His  glorification,  Molinos  made  the  mistake  which 
wrought  his  ruin.  He  was  doubtless  a  pure  man,  and 
a  thoroughly  pious  man,  but,  like  Fenelon,  who  fell  in 
the  same  way  only  a  few  years  later,  he  was  enslaved 
by  the  traditions  of  the  church  in  which  he  had  been 
trained,  and  from  which  he  had  not  the  strength  to 
emancipate  himself.  Like  Icarus,  however,  they  both 
fell  in  attempting  great  things. 


SINCE  the  preceding  pages  were  in  type  the  author's 
attention  has  been  directed  to  a  recent  English  publi- 
cation of  rare  interest  and  merit,  entitled  "John 
Inglesant;  a  Romance,"  in  which  Molinos,  doubtless  for 
the  first  time,  figures  as  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  a 
work  of  fiction.  John  Inglesant  is  "  a  philosophical 

romance," 


102  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

romance,"  and  one  of  its  purposes  seemed  to  be  to  keep 
alive  in  the  world  a  healthy  distrust  of  the  paganizing 
influences  of  the  Latin  Church. 

Of  Molinos  and  his  martyrdom  the  author  takes  sub- 
stantially the  same  view  that  is  presented  in  these 
pages  —  that  he  was  a  pure  and  spiritual-minded  man, 
who  wished  to  reform  the  church  and  vitalize  religion, 
but  that  the  controlling  influences  at  Rome  wished 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  and  made  an  example  of 
him  to  deter  others  from  repeating  the  experiment. 
The  work  concludes  with  a  brief  statement  of  the  issue 
between  Molinos  and  the  Jesuits, —  or  perhaps  it  would 
be  more  correct  to  say  between  Protestantism  and 
Papism  —  Jesuitism  being  a  logical  necessity  of  the 
papal  system, —  which  I  am  sure  those  of  my  readers 
who  have  not  chanced  to  meet  with  the  original  will 
thank  me  for  reproducing  here : 

I  said  to  Mr.  Inglesanti  that  I  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  events  of  the  last  age,  in  which  he  had  been  so  trusted 
and  prominent  an  actor,  and  that  I  hoped  to  learn  from  him 
many  interesting  particulars ;  but  he  informed  me  that  he  knew 
little  except  what  the  world  was  already  possessed  of. 
*  *  *  It  appeared  to  me  that  he  was  not  very  willing  to 
discourse  upon  these  by-gone  matters  of  state  intrigue. 

Seeing  this,  I  changed  the  topic  and  said  that,  as  Mr.  Ingle- 
sant  had  had  much  experience  in  the  working  of  the  Romish 
system,  I  should  be  glad  to  know  his  opinion  of  it,  and  whether 
he  preferred  it  to  that  of  the  English  Church.  Here  I  found 

1  John  Inglesant,  a  romance  by  J.  H.  Shorthouse,  p.  440. 


MOLINOS   THE   QUIET  I  ST.  103 

I  was  on  different  ground.  I  saw  at  once,  beneath  the  veil  of 
polite  manner  which  was  this  man's  second  nature,  that  his 
whole  life  and  being  was  in  this  question. 

"  This  is  the  supreme  quarrel  of  all,"  he  said.  "This  is  not 
a  dispute  between  sects  and  kingdoms ;  it  is  a  conflict  within 
a  man's  own  nature  —  nay,  between  the  noblest  parts  of  man's 
nature  arrayed  against  each  other.  On  the  one  side,  obedience 
and  faith ;  on  the  other,  freedom  and  the  reason.  What  can 
come  of  such  a  conflict  as  this  but  throes  and  agony  ?  I  was 
not  brought  up  by  the  Papists  in  England,  nor,  indeed,  did  I 
receive  my  book-learning  from  them.  I  was  trained  for  a 
special  purpose  by  one  of  the  Jesuits,  but  the  course  he  took 
with  me  was  different  from  that  which  he  would  have  taken 
with  other  pupils  whom  he  did  not  design  for  such  work.  I 
derived  my  training  from  various  sources,  and  especially,  in- 
stead of  Aristotle  and  the  schoolmen,  I  was  fed  upon  Plato. 
The  difference  is  immense.  I  was  trained  to  obedience  and 
devotion ;  but  the  reason  in  my  mind  for  this  conduct  was 
that  obedience  and  devotion  and  gratitude  were  ideal  virtues  — 
not  that  they  benefited  the  order  to  which  I  belonged,  nor  the 
world  in  which  I  lived.  This  I  take  to  be  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Papists  and  myself.  The  Jesuits  do  not  like  Plato, 
as  lately  they  do  not  like  Lord  Bacon.  Aristotle,  as  inter- 
preted by  the  schoolmen,  is  more  to  their  mind.  According 
to  their  reading  of  Aristotle,  all  his  Ethics  are  subordinated 
to  an  end,  and  in  such  a  system  they  see  a  weapon  which  they 
can  turn  to  their  own  purpose  of  maintaining  dogma,  no  mat- 
ter at  what  sacrifice  of  the  individual  conscience  or  reason.  This 
is  what  the  Church  of  Rome  has  ever  done.  She  has  traded 
upon  the  highest  instincts  of  humanity,  upon  its  faith  and 
love,  its  passionate  remorse,  its  self-abnegation  and  denial,  its 
imagination  and  yearning  after  the  unseen.  It  has  based  its 

.  system 


104  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

system  upon  the  profoundest  truths,  and  upon  this  platform 
it  has  raised  a  power  which  has,  whether  foreseen  by  its  authors 
or  not,  played  the  part  of  human  tyranny,  greed,  and  cruelty. 
To  support  this  system  it  has  habitually  set  itself  to  suppress 
knowledge  and  freedom  of  thought,  before  thought  had  taught 
itself  to  grapple  with  religious  subjects,  because  it  foresaw  that 
this  would  follow.  It  has,  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  preserving 
intact  its  dogma,  risked  the  growth  and  welfare  of  humanity, 
and  has,  in  the  eyes  of  all  except  those  who  value  this  dogma 
above  all  other  things,  constituted  itself  the  enemy  of  the  hu- 
man race. 

"  The  Church  of  England,"  I  said,  seeing  that  Mr.  Ingle- 
sant  paused,  "  is  no  doubt  a  compromise,  and  is  powerless  to 
exert  its  discipline,  as  the  events  of  the  late  troubles  have 
shown.  It  speaks  with  bated  assurance,  while  the  Church 
of  Rome  never  falters  in  its  utterance,  and  I  confess  seems  to 
me  to  have  a  logical  position.  If  there  be  absolute  truth  re- 
vealed, there  must  be  an  inspired  exponent  of  it,  else  from 
age  to  age  it  could  not  get  itself  revealed  to  mankind." 

"  This  is  the  Papist  argument,"  said  Mr.  Inglesant;  "  there 
is  only  one  answer  to  it  —  absolute  truth  is  not  revealed. 
There  were  certain  dangers  which  Christianity  could  not,  as 
it  would  seem,  escape.  As  it  brought  down  the  sublimest 
teaching  of  Platonism  to  the  humblest  understanding,  so  it 
was  compelled,  by  this  very  action,  to  reduce  spiritual  and 
abstract  truth  to  hard  and  inadequate  dogma.  As  it  incul- 
cated a  sublime  indifference  to  the  things  of  this  life,  and  a 
steadfast  gaze  upon  the  future,  so  by  this  very  means  it  en- 
couraged the  growth  of  a  wild,  unreasoning  superstition.  It 
is  easy  to  draw  pictures  of  martyrs  suffering  the  torture  un- 
moved in  the  face  of  a  glorious  hereafter ;  but  we  must  ac- 
knowledge, unless  we  choose  to  call  these  men  absolute  fiends, 

that 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  105 

that  it  was  these  self-same  ideas  of  the  future,  and  its  relation 
to  this  life,  that  actuated  their  tormentors.  If  these  things 
are  true, —  if  the  future  of  mankind  is  parceled  out  between 
happiness  and  eternal  torture, —  then,  to  insure  the  safety  of 
mankind  at  large,  the  death  and  torment  for  a  few  moments 
of  comparatively  few  need  excite  but  little  regret.  From  the 
instant  that  the  founder  of  Christianity  left  the  earth,  perhaps 
even  before,  this  ghastly  specter  of  superstition  ranged  itself 
side  by  side  with  the  advancing  faith.  It  is  confined  to  no 
church  or  sect ;  it  exists  in  all.  Faith  in  the  noble,  the  un- 
seen, the  unselfish,  by  its  very  nature  encourages  this  fatal 
growth ;  and  it  is  nourished  even  by  those  who  have  sufficient 
strength  to  live  above  it,  because,  forsooth,  its  removal  may 
be  dangerous  to  the  well-being  of  society  at  large —  as  though 
anything  could  be  more  fatal  than  falsehood  against  the  Di- 
vine Truth." 

"But  if  absolute  truth  is  not  revealed,"  I  said,  "how  can 
we  know  the  truth  at  all?" 

"  We  cannot  say  how  we  know  it,"  replied  Mr.  Inglesant, 
"  but  this  very  ignorance  proves  that  we  can  know.  We  are 
the  creatures  of  this  ignorance  against  which  we  rebel.  From 
the  earliest  dawn  of  existence  we  have  known  nothing. 
How,  then,  could  we  question  for  a  monent?  What  thought 
should  we  have  other  than  this  ignorance  which  we  had  im- 
bibed from  our  growth,  but  for  the  existence  of  some  divine 
principle,  '  Fans  -veri  lucidusj  within  us  ?  The  Founder 
of  Christianity  said,  '  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you. ' 
We  may  not  only  know  the  truth,  but  we  may  live  even  in 
this  life  in  the  very  household  and  court  of  God.  We  are 
the  creatures  of  birth,  of  ancestry,  of  circumstance ;  we  are 
surrounded  by  law,  physical  and  psychical,  and  the  physical 
very  often  dominates  and  rules  the  soul.  As  the  chemist, 

the 


io6  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

the  navigator,  the  naturalist  attain  their  ends  by  means  of 
law,  which  is  beyond  their  power  to  alter,  which  they  cannot 
change,  but  with  which  they  can  work  in  harmony,  and  by  so 
doing  produce  definite  results,  so  may  we.  We  find  our- 
selves immersed  in  physical  and  psychical  laws,  in  accordance 
with  which  we  act,  or  from  which  we  diverge.  Whether  we 
are  free  to  act  or  not,  we  can  at  least  fancy  that  we  resolve. 
Let  us  cheat  ourselves,  if  it  be  a  cheat,  with  this  fancy,  for 
we  shall  find  that  by  so  doing  we  actually  attain  the  end  we 
seek.  Virtue,  truth,  love,  are  not  mere  names ;  they  stand 
for  actual  qualities,  which  are  well  known  and  recognized 
among  men.  These  qualities  are  the  elements  of  an  ideal 
life,  of  that  absolute  and  perfect  life  of  which  our  highest  cul- 
ture can  catch  but  a  glimpse.  As  Mr.  Hobbes  has  traced  the 
individual  man  up  to  the  perfect  state,  or  Civitas,  let  us  work 
still  lower,  and  trace  the  individual  man  from  small  origins  to 
the  position  he  at  present  fills.  We  shall  find  that  he  has  at- 
tained any  position  of  vantage  he  may  occupy  by  following 
the  laws  which  our  instinct  and  conscience  tell  us  are  divine. 
Terror  and  superstition  are  the  invariable  enemies  of  culture 
and  progress.  They  are  used  as  rods  and  bogies  to  frighten 
the  ignorant  and  the  base,  but  they  depress  all  mankind  to  the 
same  level  of  abject  slayery.  The  ways  are  dark  and  foul, 
and  the  gray  years  bring  a  mysterious  future  which  we  cannot 
see.  We  are  like  children,  or  men  in  a  tennis-court,  and  be- 
fore our  conquest  is  half-won  the  dim  twilight  comes  and  stops 
the  game ;  nevertheless,  let  us  keep  our  places,  and  above  all 
things  hold  fast  by  the  law  of  life  we  feel  within.  This  was 
the  method  which  Christ  followed,  and  He  won  the  world  by 
placing  Himself  in  harmony  with  that  law  of  gradual  develop- 
ment which  the  divine  wisdom  has  planned.  Let  us  follow 
in  His  steps  and  we  shall  attain  to  the  ideal  life,  and,  without 
waiting  for  our  '  mortal  passage,'  tread  the  free  and  spacious 
streets  of  that  Jerusalem  which  is  above." 


APPENDIX  A. 

LETTER  FROM  THE  CARDINAL  CARACCIOLI  TO  POPE  INNO- 
CENT XI.,  WRITTEN  FROM  NAPLES,  JAN.   30,   1 682. 

Very  Holy  Father  : 

If  I  have  any  reason  to  comfort  myself  and  render  thanks 
to  God,  that  many  souls  confided  to  my  care  apply  themselves 
to  the  holy  exercise  of  mental  prayer,  the  source  of  every 
heavenly  benediction,  I  ought  not  the  less  to  be  afflicted  by 
seeing  others  inconsiderately  wandering  into  dangerous  ways. 
For  some  time,  Very  Holy  Father,  there  has  been  introduced 
into  Naples,  and  as  I  learn  into  other  parts  of  this  kingdom, 
the  frequent  use  of  passive  prayer,  which  some  call  the  prayer 
of  pure  faith,  or  of  quietude.  They  affect  the  name  of  Quiet- 
ists,  making  no  meditation  nor  vocal  prayers,  but  in  the  actual 
exercise  of  prayer  holding  themselves  in  perfect  repose  and 
silence,  as  if  mute  or  dead.  They  pretend  to  make  a  prayer 
purely  passive.  In  effect,  they  strive  to  remove  from  their 
mind  and  even  from  their  eyes  every  subject  of  meditation, 
presenting  themselves,  as  they  say,  to  the  light  and  breath  of 
God,  which  they  expect  from  heaven,  without  observing  any 
rule  or  method,  and  without  preparing  themselves  by  any 
reading  or  reflection.  The  masters  of  the  spiritual  life  are 
accustomed  to  propose  such  aids  to  beginners,  that  by  re- 
flection on  their  own  defects,  on  their  passions,  and  on  their 

imperfections 


io8  MOLINOS   THE.   QUIETIST. 

imperfections  they  may  ultimately  correct  them,  but  they 
themselves  pretend  to  lift  themselves  to  the  most  sublime 
state  of  prayer  and  contemplation,  which  comes  only  from  the 
pure  goodness  of  God,  who  gives  it  to  whom  he  pleases,  and 
when  he  pleases  —  so  they  visibly  deceive  themselves, 
imagining  that,  without  passing  through  the  exercises  of  a 
purifying  life,  they  may,  by  their  own  strength,  open  to  them- 
selves at  once  the  way  of  contemplation,  without  thinking  that 
the  ancients  and  the  moderns  treating  of  this  matter  teach 
unanimously  that  passive  prayer,  or  the  prayer  of  quietude, 
cannot  be  practiced  except  by  those  who  have  attained  to  the 
perfect  mortification  of  their  passions  and  are  already  far 
advanced.  It  is  this  irregular  method  of  making  prayer 
through  which  the  devil  has  finally  transformed  himself  into 
an  angel  of  light,  about  which  I  have  to  make  this  recital  to 
your  Holiness,  not  without  very  great  horror. 

Among  them  are  some  who  reject  vocal  prayer  entirely, 
and  it  has  happened  that  some,  long  exercised  in  the  prayer 
of  pure  faith  and  of  quietude  under  the  lead  of  these 
new  directors,  having  subsequently  fallen  into  other  hands, 
have  not  been  able  to  bring  themselves  to  say  the  holy 
rosary,  nor  even  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross,  saying  that 
they  could  not  nor  would  not  do  it,  nor  recite  any  vocal 
prayer,  because  they  were  dead  in  the  presence  of  God,  and 
that  these  exterior  acts  were  of  no  service.  A  woman 
brought  up  in  this  practice  is  always  saying,  "  I  am  nothing, 
God  is  all,  and  I  am  in  the  abandon,  where  you  see  me, 
because  it  so  pleases  God."  She  does  not  wish  to  confess 
any  more,  but  daily  to  take  the  communion ;  she  obeys  no 
one,  and  makes  no  vocal  prayer.  Yet  others,  in  this  prayer 
of  quietude,  when  the  images  of  the  saints  and  even  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  present  themselves  to  their  imagination, 

they 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST.  109 

they  hasten  to  drive  them  away  with  a  shake  of  their  head, 
because  they  say  they  separate  them  from  God.  They 
pursue  this  ridiculous  and  scandalous  course  even  at  the 
public  communion,  imagining  that  they  ought  then  to  leave 
Jesus  Christ  to  think  only  of  God.  Their  blindness  is  so 
great  that  one  of  them  took  it  into  his  head  one  day  to  throw 
down  a  crucifix,  because,  he  says,  it  prevented  him  from 
uniting  himself  with  God,  and  made  him  lose  the  divine 
presence.  They  are  in  the  error  of  believing  that  all  the 
thoughts  which  come  to  them  in  the  silence  and  in  the  repose 
of  prayer  are  so  many  lights  and  inspirations  from  God,  and 
that  being  in  the  light  of  God  they  are  under  no  law,  hence  it 
happens  that  they  believe  themselves  permitted  to  do  every- 
thing without  distinction  that  at  such  times  enters  their 
mind. 

These  disorders  oppress  me,  who  am,  however  unworthy, 
the  vine-dresser  appointed  to  the  culture  of  this  vineyard,  and 
render  an  exact  account  of  it,  with  all  the  respect  which  I 
owe  to  your  Holiness,  as  to  the  great  father  of  the  family, 
in  order  that,  knowing  through  your  wisdom  the  poisoned 
root  which  produces  such  growths,  he  may  employ  all  the 
strength  of  his  apostolic  arm  to  cut  them  and  tear  them  out 
by  the  very  roots;  the  more  so  because  on  this  subject 
opinions  are  spreading  which  deserve  to  be  condemned. 
Since  I  have  been  here,  a  manuscript  treating  of  the  prayer 
of  Quietude  has  been  presented  to  me  for  permission  to  print 
it;  it  contained  so  many  censurable  propositions  that  I  have 
refused  permission  and  retained  the  book.  I  perceive  that 
pens  are  being  prepared  on  all  sides  to  write  some  dangerous 
things.  I  pray  your  Holiness  to  give  me  such  lights  and 
means  as  you  may  judge  fitting,  that  I  may  anticipate  the 
graver  scandals  with  which  this  city  and  diocese  are  threat- 
ened. 


no  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

ened.  I  cannot  prevent  myself  from  also  giving  your  Holi- 
ness notice  of  the  usage  of  daily  communion  introduced  here 
among  even  the  married  laity,  who,  without  exhibiting  any 
progress  in  spiritual  life,  as  they  should  do  in  so  frequently 
approaching  the  holy  table,  give,  on  the  contrary,  instead  of 
edification,  much  scandal.  Your  Holiness  cannot  ignore 
what  you  have  ordered  in  a  general  decree  specially  recom- 
mending to  confessors  by  whose  judgment  the  daily  com- 
munion of  the  laity  should  be  regulated,  that  in  permitting  it 
they  should  remember  above  all  to  make  manifest  the  large 
preparation  and  the  great  purity  which  the  soul  should  bring 
to  the  holy  table,  and  yet  experience  shows  but  too  plainly 
that,  without  any  regard  to  the  pious  notifications  of  your 
Holiness,  most  of  the  laity  frequent  the  holy  communion 
daily,  of  which  I  feel  myself  obliged  to  complain  to  your 
Holiness  as  a  manifest  abuse,  for  which  I  pray  you  to  pre- 
scribe a  suitable  remedy  with  special  instructions,  which  I 
shall  follow  as  the  guide  which  ought  to  lead  me  safely  in  the 
direction  of  souls.  I  very  humbly  kiss  the  feet  of  your 
Holiness. 

(Signed) 

THE  CARDINAL  CARACCIOLI. 


APPENDIX  B. 

CIRCULAR  LETTER  OF  CARDINAL  CIBO,  WRITTEN  FROM 
ROME,  FEBRUARY  15,  1687,  TO  ALL  POTENTATES, 
BISHOPS,  AND  SUPERIORS  OF  CHRISTENDOM,  BY  ORDER 
OF  THE  CONGREGATION  OF  THE  HOLY  OFFICE. 

Most  Illustrious  and  Reverend  Lord  and  Brother  : 

The  Sacred  Congregation  having  been  advised  that  in 
various  parts  of  Italy  there  are  forming  or  already  established 
schools  or  companies  of  associations  or  brotherhoods  under 
divers  names  in  the  churches,  oratories,  and  in  private  houses, 
under  the  pretext  of  spiritual  conference,  sometimes  of 
women  only,  sometimes  of  men  only,  and  sometimes  of  both 
sexes,  in  which  certain  directors,  without  any  experience  of 
the  ways  of  God  frequented  by  the  Saints,  and  perhaps  even 
with  evil  intent,  feigning  to  lead  souls  to  prayer  which  they 
call  quietude,  or  pure  and  interior  faith,  and  other  names  ; 
although  they  seem  at  first  by  their  principle  imperfectly  un- 
derstood and  in  practice  very  bad,  to  propose  nothing  less 
than  the  highest  perfection  of  every  kind ;  nevertheless,  they 
insinuate  by  degrees,  into  simple  minds,  very  grievous  and 
pernicious  errors,  which  finally  end  in  manifest  heresies  and 
shameful  abominations,  with  the  irreparable  loss  of  the  souls 
who  put  themselves  under  their  direction  with  the  sole  desire 
of  serving  God,  which  it  is  only  too  well  known  has  happened 


112  MOLINOS   THE   QUIETIST. 

in  some  places.  The  Cardinal  Inquisitors  General,  my  col- 
leagues, have  judged  it  suitable  to  charge  you  at  once,  by -this 
letter  addressed  to  all  the  bishops  of  Italy,  to  make  a  careful 
and  diligent  search  of  all  for  all  these  new  associations  and 
such  as  differ  from  those  established  heretofore,  and  which 
have  been  from  all  time  frequented  by  Catholics,  in  order  that 
if  you  find  any  of  them  that  you  have  them  immediately 
broken  up,  and  that  you  do  not  permit  the  establishment  of 
any  more  of  them,  but  recommend  specially  to  directors  of 
consciences  to  walk  the  highway  to  Christian  perfection  with- 
out singularity;  that  you  have  great  care  that  no  one  sus- 
pected of  these  novelties  intrude  himself  into  the  direction  of 
the  nuns  either  orally  or  in  writing,  for  fear  that  this  pestilence, 
spreading  in  the  monasteries,  bring  corruption  among  the 
spouses  of  Christ.  In  remitting  all  to  your  prudence,  we  do 
not  pretend  by  this  provisional  ordinance  to  take  from  you 
the  faculty  of  pursuing  in  the  court  of  law  those  who  may  be 
found  guilty  of  these  insupportable  errors.  Nevertheless,  we 
do  not  cease  to  labor  here  to  clear  up  this  matter,  that  in  time 
we  may  be  able  to  make  known  to  Christians  the  errors  they 
will  have  to  shun.  I  desire  you  every  sort  of  prosperity. 
Your  very  affectionate  colleague, 

(Signed) 
ROME,  Feb.  15,  1687.  THE  CARDINAL  CIBO. 


APPENDIX  C. 

BULL  OF  INNOCENT  XL  AGAINST  MICHEL  DE  MOLINOS. 

Innocent,  Bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  -witnesseth  : 

The  heavenly  shepherd,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  desiring 
through  his  ineffable  mercy  to  liberate  the  world  lying  in 
darkness  and  error  from  the  power  of  the  devil,  which  has 
held  it  since  the  fall  of  our  first  parents,  humbled  himself  to 
become  flesh  in  testimony  of  his  love  for  us,  and  offered  him- 
self to  God  a  living  sacrifice  for  our  sins,  having  fastened  upon 
the  cross  the  seal  of  our  redemption.  When  ready  to  return 
to  heaven  he  left  on  the  earth  the  Catholic  Church,  his  spouse, 
like  that  Holy  City  New  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  heaven, 
having  neither  stain  nor  wrinkle,  being  one  and  holy,  equipped 
with  the  arms  of  his  omnipotence  against  the  gates  of  hell ;  he 
has  transferred  its  government  to  the  prince  of  the  Apostles 
and  his  successors,  that  they  should  keep  sound  and  entire  the 
doctrine  received  from  his  lips,  that  the  flock  purchased  with 
his  blood  should  not  fall  into  ancient  errors  through  their 
taste  for  depraved  opinions,  as  we  learn  from  the  holy  script- 
ures that  he  especially  recommended  to  Saint  Peter.  For  to 
what  other  of  his  Apostles  has  he  said,  "  Feed  my  sheep"  ? 
And  again  I  have  prayed  for  you  that  your  faith  might  not  fail, 
and  when  you  shall  be  converted,  strengthen  your  brethren. 
So  we  who  occupy  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  are  clothed  with 
his  power,  not  by  our  own  merits  but  by  the  impenetrable 
wisdom  of  Almighty  God,  have  always  had  in  our  heart  a 

solicitude 
8 


H4  MOLINOS   THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

solicitude  that  the  Christian  people  should  keep  the  faith 
preached  by  Jesus  and  by  his  Apostles,  which  has  come  down 
to  us  by  a  constant  and  unbroken  tradition,  and  is  to  continue 
to  the  end  of  the  world  according  to  the  promises. 

Now,  as  it  has  been  reported  to  our  apostleship  that  one 
Michel  de  Molinos  has  taught,  orally  and  by  writing,  impious 
maxims,  and  has  even  preached  them  under  the  pretext  of  the 
prayer  of  quietude,  contrary  to  the  doctrine  and  practice 
of  the  Holy  Fathers  from  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  and 
has  plunged  the  faithful  adherents  of  the  true  religion  and  of 
Christian  piety  into  the  greatest  and  most  shameful  errors  : 
We,  who  have  it  so  much  at  heart  that  the  souls  confided  to 
our  cares  arrive  safely  at  the  port  of  safety,  purged  of  all 
the  errors  of  depraved  opinions,  have  ordered,  upon  very 
good  grounds,  that  the  said  Michel  de  Molinos  be  put  in 
prison.  Afterwards,  having  heard,  in  our  own  presence  and 
in  the  presence  of  our  venerable  brothers,  the  cardinals  of  the 
holy  Roman  Church ;  the  Inquisitors  General  of  the  whole 
Christian  State  specially  deputed  by  apostolic  authority,  and 
many  doctors  in  theology ;  having  also  taken  their  votes  viva 
•voce  and  in  writing,  and  having  carefully  considered,  imploring 
the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  have  ordered,  and  with  the 
unanimous  advice  of  our  said  brothers  we  decree,  the  con- 
demnation of  the  below  written  propositions,  of  which  Michel 
de  Molinos  is  the  author,  which  he  has  admitted  to  be  his, 
and  which  he  is  proved  and  has  confessed  to  have  dictated, 
written,  communicated,  and  believed,  as  set  forth  more  at 
length  in  his  trial  and  in  the  decree  made  by  our  order  the 
28th  of  August,  1687. 

I.  Man  should  annihilate  his  powers  :  that  is  the  interior 
way. 

2.     To 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST.  115 

2.  To  wish  to  operate  actively  is   to  offend   God,  who 
wishes  to  be   sole  agent;  hence,  we  should   abandon  our- 
selves wholly  to  Him,  and  remain  afterwards  like  an  inanimate 
body. 

3.  The  wish  to  do  any  good  work  is  an  obstacle  to  per- 
fection. 

4.  Natural  activity  is  an  enemy  of  grace ;  it  is  an  obstacle 
to  the  operations  of  God  and  to  true  perfection ;  for  God 
wishes  to  act  in  us,  but  without  us. 

5.  The  soul  annihilates  itself  by  inaction,  and  returns  to 
its   beginning,   which    is   the   divine    essence    in    which    it 
remains  transformed  and  deified.     Then,  also,  God  remains 
in  Himself;  for  then  there  are  no  more  two  things  united, 
but  one  single  thing.      It  is  thus  that  God  lives  and  reigns  in 
us  and  the  soul  annihilates  itself,  even  in  its  operative  power. 

6.  The  interior  way  is  that  in  which  one  knows  neither 
light  nor  love  nor  resignation,  nor  is  it  necessary  even  to 
know  God.     In  this  way  one  advances  directly  to  perfection. 

7.  The   soul  should  never  think  of  recompense,  nor  of 
punishment,  nor  of  paradise,  nor  of  hell,  nor  of  death,  nor  of 
eternity. 

8.  It  ought  not  to  desire  to  know  if  it  is  following  the 
will  of  God,  nor  if  it  is  sufficiently  resigned  to  that  will  or 
not;  nor  is  it  necessary  that  it  should  know  its  own  state 
and  proper  nothingness ;  but  it  should  remain  as  an  inani- 
mate body. 

9.  The  soul  ought  not  to  be  mindful  either  of  itself  or  of 
God,  or   of  anything,  for  in   the  interior  life,  reflection  is 
pernicious,  even  such  as  one  makes  on  his  own  human  acts 
and  defects. 

10.  If  by  his  own  defects  he  scandalizes  others,  it  is  still 
not  necessary  that  it  should  be   made  the  subject  of   any 

reflection, 


Ii6  MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

reflection,  provided  there  was  no  actual  will  to  scandalize, 
and  it  is  a  great  grace  of  God  to  be  unable  to  reflect  on  one's 
own  short-comings. 

11.  If  in  doubt  whether  we  are  in  the  right  or  the  wrong 
way,  it  is  not  necessary  to  reflect. 

12.  He  who  has  given  his  free  will  to  God  ought  to  have 
no  further  anxiety  about  anything,  neither  of  hell   nor  of 
paradise ;  he  ought  not  to  have  a  desire  of  his  own  perfec- 
tion, of  virtues,  of  his  sanctification,  nor  of  his  salvation,  of 
which  he  ought  to  purify  himself  of  the  hope. 

13.  After  remitting  our  free  will  to  God,  we  must  also 
abandon  all  thought  and  care  of  what  concerns  ourselves. 
Even  the  care  of  doing  in  ourselves,  without  ourselves,  His 
divine  will. 

14.  It  does  not  become  him  who  is  resigned  to  the  will  of 
God  to  ask  of  Him,  because  to  ask  is  an  imperfection,  being 
an  act  of  the  personal  will  and  of  the  personal  choice.     It  is  to 
will  that  the  divine  will  be  conformed  to  our  own ;  hence  this 
word  of  the  Evangel,  "Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,"  was  not 
intended  by  Jesus  Christ  for  interior  souls  who  have  no  will. 
In  this  way,  truly,  souls  reach  the  point  that  they  cannot  ask 
anything  from  God. 

15.  Even  as  the  soul  ought  to  ask  from  God  nothing,  so 
it  ought  to  thank  Him  for  nothing,  both  being  acts  of  the 
personal  will. 

16.  It  is  not  proper  to  seek  indulgences  to  diminish  the 
penalties   due  to  our   sins,  because  it  is  better  to   satisfy 
divine  justice  than  appeal  to  the  divine  mercy  —  the  one 
springing  from  the  pure  love  of  God,  and  the  other  from 
selfish  love  of  ourselves,  and  is  neither  grateful  to  God  nor 
meritorious,  because  it  is  seeking  to  flee  the  cross. 

17.     The 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST.  117 

17.  The  free  will  being  remitted  to  God  with  the  care  and 
the  knowledge  of  our  soul,  we  need  have  no  more  concern 
about  temptations,  nor  trouble  in  resisting  them,  unless  nega- 
tively and  without  any  other  effort.     If  nature  asserts  herself 
let  her  assert  herself —  it  is  but  nature. 

18.  He  who  in  prayer  serves  himself  with  images,  figures, 
ideas,  or  even  his  own  conceptions,  does  not  adore  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth. 

19.  He  who  loves  God  in  a  way  that  the  reason  proves 
and  the  understanding  conceives  that  he  ought  to  be  loved, 
does  not  truly  love  God. 

20.  It  is  ignorance  to  say  that  in  prayer  we  should  aid 
ourselves  by  reasoning  and  reflections  when  God  does  not 
speak  to  the  soul;  God  never   speaks  His  speech  in  His 
actions,  and  He  acts  in  the  soul  whenever  it  makes  no  ob- 
stacle to  His  action  by  its  thoughts  and  its  operations. 

21.  In  prayer  we  should  remain  in  a  faith  obscure  and 
universal,  in  quietude,  and  in  forgetfulness  of  all  particular 
thought,  even  of  the  distinctive  attributes  of  God  and  of  the 
Trinity.     We  should  also  remain  in  the  presence  of  God 
to  adore  Him,  to  love  Him,  and  to  serve  Him,  but  without 
the  production  of  acts,  because  in  them  God  takes  no  pleasure. 

22.  This  knowledge  by  faith  is  not  an  act  produced  by  the 
creature,  but  it  is  a  knowledge  given  of  God  to  the  creature, 
which  the  creature  does  not  know  is  in  him  and  does  not 
know  to  have  been  in  him.     The  same  may  be  said  of  love. 

23.  The  mystics  with  St.  Bernard  distinguish  in  the  scale 
of  the  cloisters  four  degrees  —  reading,  meditation,  prayer,  and 
infused  contemplation.     He  who   stops  always  at  the  first 
round  cannot  mount  to  the  second.     He  who  remains  con- 
tinually at  the  second  cannot  arrive  at  the  third,  which  is  our 

acquired 


n8  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

acquired  contemplation,  in  which  we  must  persist  through  life 
unless  God  lifts  the  soul  without  any  desire  on  its  part  up  to 
infused  contemplation,  which,  ceasing,  the  soul  should  descend 
to  the  third  step  and  there  so  fix  itself  that  it  may  not  again 
return  either  to  the  second  or  to  the  first. 

24.  Whatever  thoughts  occur  in  prayer,  even  impure  ones, 
or  against  God  and  against  the  saints,  the  faith,  and  the  sacra- 
ments, providing  one  does  not  entertain  them  voluntarily,  but 
only  tolerates  them  with  indifference  and  resignation,  do  not 
prevent  the  prayer  of  faith ;  on  the  contrary,  they  perfect  it, 
because  the  soul  then  remains  more  resigned  to  the  divine 
will. 

25.  Although   asleep  and  altogether  insensible,  he  does 
not  cease  to  be  in  prayer  and  actual  contemplation,  because 
prayer  and  resignation   are  but  the  same  thing,  and  while 
prayer  lasts,  so  long  resignation  lasts. 

26.  The  distinction  of  three   ways  —  purificative,  illumi- 
native, and  unitive  —  is  the  absurdest  thing  which  has  been 
said  by  mystics,  for  there  is  but  one  only  way,  and  that  is  the 
interior  way. 

27.  He  who  desires  and  stops  at  sensible  devotion  neither 
desires  nor  seeks  God,  but  himself,  and  he  who  walks  in  the 
interior  way  sins  in  desiring  it  and  in  exciting  himself  in  holy 
places  and  at  solemn  festivals. 

28.  Disgust  for  spiritual  goods  is  profitable,  for  it  purifies 
self-love. 

29.  When  an  interior  soul  revolts  from  intercourse  with 
God  or  virtue,  it  is  a  good  sign. 

30.  All  sensibility  in  the  spiritual  life  is  an  abomination 
and  nastiness. 

31.  No  contemplative  practices  the  true  interior  virtues, 
because  they  ought  not  to  be  recognizable  by  the  senses :  it 
is  necessary  then  to  banish  the  virtues. 

32.     Before 


MOLINOS  THE   QUIET  I  ST.  119 

32.  Before   or   after   communion,  interior   souls   do   not 
require  any  other  preparation  or  actions  of  grace,  than    to 
abide  in  ordinary  passive  resignation,  because  that  supple- 
ments in  a  more  perfect  manner  all  the  acts  of  virtue  which 
are  or  can  be  made  in  the  common  way;  that  if  at  com- 
munion there  rises  in  the  soul  sentiments  of  humiliation,  of 
requirement,   or   of  gratitude,   they   should   be    suppressed 
whenever  you  see  they  do  not  come  from  a  special  inspira- 
tion of  God.     In  other  cases  they  are  the  emotions  of  nature 
which  is  not  yet  dead. 

33.  The  soul  that  is  walking  in  the  interior  way  does 
wrong  to  awaken  in  itself,  by  any  effort  at  solemn  festivals, 
sentiments  of  devotion,  because  all  days  to  the  interior  soul 
are  alike;  all  are  solemn  festivals.     I  say  the  same  of  sacred 
places,  for  to  it  all  places  are  alike. 

34.  It  does  not  become  interior  souls  to  give  thanks  to 
God  in  words   and  with   the   tongue,  because   they  should 
remain  silent  without  opposing  any  obstacle  to  the  operation 
of  God  in  them.     Thus  they  find  as  fast  as  they  resign  them- 
selves to  God  they  are  less  able  to  recite  the  Lord's  Prayer 
or  Pater  Noster. 

35.  It  is   not   fitting  for   interior   souls   to   do   virtuous 
actions  of  their  own  choice  and  by  their  own  forces,  for  then 
they  would  not  be  dead.     Nor  should  they  testify  love  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  the  saints,  and  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  because 
that,  being  sensible  objects,  the  love  of  them  must  be  of  the 
same  quality. 

36.  No   creature,  neither   the   Blessed  Virgin   nor    the 
saints,  should  have  a  place  in  our  hearts,  because  God  alone 
wishes  to  fill  and  possess  it. 

37.  Under  the  strongest  temptations  even,  the  soul  ought 
not  to  resist  them  with  explicit  acts  of  opposing  virtues,  but 
rest  in  the  aforesaid  love  and  resignation. 

38.     The 


120  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

38.  The  voluntary  cross  of  mortifications  is  an  insupport- 
able burden  and  without  fruit,  hence  it  should  be  laid  aside. 

39.  The  holiest  action  nor  the  penances   of   the   saints 
suffice  to  efface  from  the  soul  the  slightest  stain. 

40.  The  Holy  Virgin  has  never  done  a  single  exterior  act, 
and  yet  she  has  been  the  holiest  of  all  saints.     One  may, 
therefore,  attain  to  holiness  without  exterior  acts. 

41.  God  permits  and  wishes  to  humiliate  us  and  to  con- 
duct us  to  a  perfect  transformation,  that  the  devil  should  do 
violence  to  the  bodies  of  some  perfected  souls  which  are  not 
possessed,  even  to  the  making  them  to  commit  animal  actions, 
even  while  awake  and  without  any  mental  obfuscation,  even 
to  physically  moving  their  hands  and  other  members  against 
their  will.     The  same  is  to  be  understood  of  other  actions, 
bad  in  themselves,  but  which  are  not  sinful  in  this  connec- 
tion, because  there  has  been  no  consent. 

42.  These  acts  of  earthly  violence  may  occur  at  the  same 
time  between  persons  of  opposite  sexes,  and  even  push  them 
to  the  accomplishment  of  a  wicked  action. 

43.  In  past  ages,  God  made  saints  by  the  agency  of  ty- 
rants, now  he  makes  them  by  the  agency  of  demons,  who, 
exciting  in   them   these   violences,  lead   them   the   more  to 
despise  and  annihilate  themselves,  and  abandon  themselves 
totally  to  God. 

44.  Job  blasphemed  and  yet  he  did  not  sin,  because  it 
was  a  violence  of  the  demon. 

45.  St.  Paul  felt  in  his  body  the  violences  of  the  demon. 
Hence  he  wrote,  "The  good  I  would,  I  do  not;  the  evil  I 
would  not,  that  I  do." 

46.  These  violences  are  more  suited  to  annihilate  the  soul 
and  conduct  it  to  a  perfect  union  and  transformation.     Indeed, 
there  is  no  other  way  so  short  and  sure. 

47.     When 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST.  121 

47.  When  these  violences  occur,  we  must  let  Satan  act 
without  opposing  with  any  effort  or  endeavor,  but  to  remain 
in  nothingness,  and  although  there  should  result  illusions  of 
the  senses  or  other  brutal  acts,  or  even  worse,  we  should  not 
disquiet  ourselves,  but  put  away  our  scruples,  doubts,  and 
fears,  because  the  soul  is  thereby  more  enlightened,  fortified, 
and   purified,  and  acquires   a  holy  liberty.     Above  all,  we 
should  avoid  confessing.     It  is  well  not  to  accuse  ourselves 
of  our  acts,  because  that  is  the  way  to  subdue  the  demon  and 
to  lay  up  treasures  of  peace. 

48.  Satan,  the  author  of  these  violences,  strives,  after- 
wards, to  persuade  the  soul  that  they  are  great  sins,  in  order 
that  we  may  be  disquieted  and  advance  no  farther  in   the 
interior  way.     Hence,  to   render  his  efforts  abortive,  it  is 
better  not  to  accuse  ourselves,  especially  as  they  are  not  sins, 
even  venial  sins. 

49.  By  the  violence  of  the  demon,  Job  was  betrayed  into 
strange  excesses  at  the  very  time  that  he  raised  his  pure 
hands  to  heaven  in  prayer,  as  is  explained  in  the  sixteenth 
chapter  of  his  book. 

50.  David,  Jeremiah,  and  many  holy  prophets  suffered 
these    violences    from  without    in    like    shameful   external 
actions. 

51.  There  are  many  examples  in  the  Holy  Scripture  of 
these  violences  in  external  actions,  bad  in   themselves,  as 
when  Samson  killed  himself  with  the  Philistines,  when  he 
married  an  alien,  and  sinned  with  Delilah,  things  forbidden 
and  sinful ;  when  Judith  lied  to  Holofernes ;  when  Elisha 
cursed  the  children;   when  Eli  burned  the  chiefs  of  King 
Ahab,  with  their  troops.     One  is  only  in  doubt  whether  this 
violence  came  directly  from   God  or  from  the  agency  of 
demons,  as  happens  to  other  souls. 

52.     When 


122  MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST. 

52.  When  these  violences,  even  shameful  ones,  happen 
without  troubling  the  mind,  then  the  soul  may  unite  itself 
to  God,  as,  in  fact,  it  is  all  the  time  united. 

53.  To  know  in  practice  of  such  if  any  act  in  other  persons 
proceeds  from  this  violence,  the  rule  which  I  have  is  not  only 
derived  from  the  protestations  which  souls  make  that  they 
have  not  assented  to  these  violences,  nor  that  it  is  impossible 
that  they  have  sworn  falsely  that   they  had  not  consented, 
nor  that  they  are  souls  advanced  in  the  interior  way,  but  I 
judge  rather  from  an  actual  light,  superior  to  all  human  and 
theological  knowledge,  which  makes  me  know  certainly,  with 
an  interior  conviction,  that  such  an  action  comes  from  vio- 
lence.    Now  I  am  certain  that  this  light  comes  from  God, 
because  it  comes  to  me  joined  to  the  conviction  that  it  comes 
from  God,  so  that  it  leaves  not  the  least  shadow  of  a  doubt 
to   the  contrary,  just   as    it  happens    sometimes  that  God, 
revealing  something  to  a  soul,  he  convinces  it  at  the  same 
time  that  the  revelation  comes  from  Him,  so  that  he  cannot 
doubt  it. 

54.  The  spiritual,  who  walk  in  the  common  way,  will  be 
much  confused  and  deceived  at  death  with  all  the  passions 
they  will  have  to  purify  in  the  other  world. 

55.  By  this  interior  way  one  succeeds,  though  with  much 
trouble,   in   purifying   and   extinguishing    all   the    passions, 
so   that   one  no   longer   feels   anything  whatever,   nothing, 
nothing,  nor  does  one  feel  any  more  inquietude  than  if  the  body 
were  dead,  nor  does  the  soul  experience  any  more  emoti  o. 

56.  The  two  laws  and  the  two  lusts,  the  one  of  the  soul 
and  the  other  of  self-love,  subsist  so  long  as  self-love  sub- 
sists ;  hence,  when  it  is  once  purified  and  dead,  as  happens 
in  the  interior  way,  then  also  perish  the  two  laws  and  the  two 
lusts;  one  falls  no  more, —  one  feels  nothing  any  more,  not 
even  a  venial  sin. 

57.     By 


MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST.  123 

57.  By  acquired  contemplation,  one  reaches  a  state   in 
which  one  commits  no  more  sin,  mortal  or  venial. 

58.  We  reach   this  state  by  not  reflecting  on  our  acts, 
because  faults  come  from  reflection. 

59.  The  interior  way  has  nothing  to  do  with  confession, 
confessors,  cases  of  conscience,  theology,  or  philosophy. 

60.  God  renders  the  confession  impossible  to  advanced 
souls,  when  they  once  begin  to  die  to  reflections  or  are  already 
dead  to  them.     He  supplies  their  place  with  as  much  pre- 
serving  grace  as   they  would   receive  from  the  sacrament. 
Hence,  in  this  state,  it  is  not  good  for  souls  to  frequent  the 
confessional,  because  it  is  impossible  to  them. 

61.  A  soul  arrived  at  the  mystic  death  can  wish  nothing 
but  what  God  wishes,  because  it  has  no  more  a  will, —  God 
has  taken  it  from  him. 

62.  The  interior  way  conducts,  also,  to  the  death  of  the 
senses.     Besides,  an  evidence  that  one  is  in  a  state  of  anni- 
hilation, which  is  mystic  death,  is  that  the  exterior  senses  no 
more  represent  to  us  sensible  things  than  if  they  were  not, 
because  they  can  no  longer  make  the  intellect   apply  itself 
to  them. 

63.  By  the  interior  way  one  attains  to  a  fixed  state  of 
imperturbable  peace. 

64.  A  theologian  has  less  disposition  for  contemplation 
than  an  idiot :    first,  because  he  has  not  a  faith  as   pure ; 
second,  he  is  not  so  humble ;    third,  he  has  less  anxiety  for 
his  salvation ;  fourth,  he  has  a  head  full  of  phantasms,  chi- 
meras, opinions,  speculations,  so  that  the  true  light  can  never 
enter  it. 

65.  We  should  obey  superiors  in  exterior  things.     The 
vows  of  obedience  only  extend  to  things  of  this  nature,  but 
for  the  interior  it  is  otherwise.     There  but   God  and  the 
Director  alone  enter. 

66.     It 


124  MOLINOS   THE  QUIETIST. 

66.  It  is  a  new  doctrine  in  the  Church,  and  a  laughable 
one,  that  souls  in  their  interior  should  be  governed  by  bish- 
ops, and  that,  the  bishop  being  incapable,  they  should  present 
themselves  to  him  with  their  director.     It  is,  I  say,  a  new 
doctrine,  since  it  is  not  taught  either  in  the  Scriptures  or  by 
the   Councils,  in  the   canons   or  bulls,  or  by  any  saint  or 
author,  nor  can  it  be,  the  Church  not  judging  things  concealed, 
and  every  soul  having  the  right  to  choose  what  seemeth  to  it 
good. 

67.  It  is  a  manifest  fraud  to  say  that  one  is  obliged  to 
expose  his  interior  to  the  exterior  forum  of  superiors,  and 
that  it  is  sinful  not  to  do  it,  because  the  Church  does  not 
judge   things  concealed,  and  souls  are  prejudiced  by  these 
deceptions  and  dissimulations. 

68.  There  is  no  faculty  nor  jurisdiction  in  the  world  com- 
petent to  order  the  letters  of  directory  of  the  interiors  of  souls 
to  be  communicated,  hence  it  is  well  for  people  to  be  advised 
that  this  is  an  enterprise  of  Satan. 

The  which  propositions,  in  the  opinion  of  our  aforesaid 
brothers,  the  cardinals  of  the  holy  Roman  Church  and  in- 
quisitors general,  we  have  condemned,  noted,  and  effaced 
as  heretical,  suspicious,  erroneous,  scandalous,  blasphemous, 
offensive  to  pious  ears ;  rash,  enervating,  destructive  of 
church  discipline,  and  seditious,  respectively,  and  equally  so 
everything  which  has  been  published  on  the  subject,  oral, 
written,  or  printed.  We  have  forbidden  each  and  every  one 
to  speak  of,  in  any  way  write  or  dispute  about  the  said  propo- 
sitions and  others  like  them,  to  believe,  keep,  teach,  or  prac- 
tice them.  We  have  deprived  the  offenders  now  and  forever 
of  all  dignities,  honors,  benefices,  and  offices,  and  have 
declared  them  unfit  to  ever  hold  any;  at  the  same  time,  we 

have 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST.  125 

have  struck  them  with  anathema,  from  which  they  can  never 
be  delivered,  save  by  us  or  our  successors,  the  Roman 
Pontiffs. 

Besides,  we  have  forbidden  and  condemned,  for  our  pres- 
ent decree,  all  the  books  and  all  the  works  of  the  said  Michel 
de  Molinos,  in  whatever  place  or  tongue  they  may  be  printed ; 
forbidding  every  person,  of  whatever  degree,  profession,  or 
condition,  or  by  whatever  title,  from  daring,  under  any  pretext 
whatever,  in  any  language,  in  the  same,  or  in  different  or 
equivalent  terms,  or  anonymously  or  under  a  feigned  or  bor- 
rowed name,  from  printing  or  even  reading  them,  or  keeping 
by  him  copies,  printed  or  in  manuscript,  but  to  carry  them  im- 
mediately to  the  ordinaries  of  the  place  or  to  the  inquisitors 
against  the  venom  of  heresy,  under  the  penalties  above 
stated,  with  order  to  the  said  ordinaries  and  inquisitors  to 
immediately  burn  them.  Finally,  to  punish  the  aforesaid 
Molinos  for  his  heresies,  errors,  and  shameful  deeds  by  pro- 
portionate chastisements,  which  shall  serve  as  a  warning  to 
others,  and  his  correction.  Having  read  all  the  trial  by  our 
said  congregation,  and  heard  our  very  dear  sons,  the  con- 
suiters  of  the  Holy  Office,  doctors  in  theology  and  canon  laws, 
with  the  unanimous  vote  of  our  venerable  brothers,  the  car- 
dinals of  the  holy  Roman  Church,  we  have  condemned,  with 
all  the  forms  of  justice,  the  said  Michel  de  Molinos  as  guilty, 
convicted,  and  confessed,  and,  although  penitent,  as  a  formal 
heretic,  to  the  punishment  of  a  narrow  and  perpetual  prison, 
and  to  salutary  penances,  to  which  he  will  be  held  to  submit 
after  having  made  a  formal  abjuration  according  to  the  form 
which  will  be  prescribed  to  him;  we  hereby  ordering  that 
on  the  day  and  hour  indicated,  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria 
de  la  Minerva,  in  this  city,  in  presence  of  all  our  venerable 
brothers,  the  cardinals  of  the  holy  Roman  Church,  prelates  of 


126  MOLINOS  THE  QUIET  I  ST. 

our  court,  and  of  all  the  people  who  will  be  invited  there  by 
the  concession  of  indulgences,  the  tenor  of  the  trial  will  be 
read,  the  said  Michel  de  Molinos  standing  upon  the  platform. 
So  of  the  sentence  to  follow  it,  and  after  the  said  de  Molinos, 
reclothed  in  a  penitential  habit,  shall  have  publicly  abjured 
the  aforesaid  heresies  and  errors,  we  have  given  power  to  our 
dear  son,  the  Commissioner  of  our  Holy  Office  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, to  absolve  him,  in  the  ordinary  forms  of  the  Church, 
from  the  censures  he  had  incurred,  in  full  execution  of  our 
ordinance  of  the  3d  of  September  of  the  current  year.  And 
although  the  aforesaid  decree,  made  by  our  order,  has  been 
printed,  published,  and  posted  in  public,  for  the  better  instruc- 
tion of  the  faithful,  nevertheless,  for  fear  that  the  remem- 
brance of  this  apostolic  condemnation  should  be  effaced  with 
the  lapse  of  time,  and  in  order  that  Christian  people  in- 
structed in  Catholic  truth  may  walk  more  surely  in  the  way  of 
Catholic  truth,  following  in  the  steps  of  the  sovereign  pontiffs, 
our  predecessors,  by  our  present  constitution,  we  approve 
anew  and  confirm  the  aforesaid  decree,  and  order  that  it  be 
put  into  execution,  condemning,  besides,  definitively  and 
reproving  the  said  propositions,  the  books  and  manuscripts  of 
the  said  Michel  de  Molinos,  of  which  we  interdict  and  forbid 
the  reading,  under  the  same  penalties  to  be  inflicted  upon  the 
offenders.  Ordering,  besides,  that  the  present  letters  shall 
have  force,  and  shall  forever  remain  in  vigor  and  in  full  effect, 
that  all  ordinary  judges  and  delegates,  of  whatever  authority, 
shall  be  bound  to  judge  and  determine  in  conformity  with 
them;  all  power  to  judge  or  interpret  them  otherwise  being 
taken  from  each  and  all  of  them,  hereby  declaring  null  and  as 
not  occurring  any  judgment  to  the  contrary  on  these  matters, 
from  whatever  person  or  authority  emanating,  knowingly  or 
ignorantly  ;  wishing  faith  to  be  given  to  these  presents,  when 

printed, 


MOLINOS  THE  QUIETIST.  127 

printed,  signed  by  a  notary,  and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  a  duly 
authorized  ecclesiastical  dignitary,  as  would  be  due  to  their 
originals.  Let  no  one,  therefore,  permit  himself  to  violate  or 
disregard  this  our  present  approbation,  confirmation,  con- 
demnation, reprobation,  punishment,  decree,  and  wish.  Let 
him  who  shall  dare  attempt  it  know  that  he  will  call  upon 
himself  the  indignation  of  Almighty  God  and  of  the  blessed 
apostles  Saint  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 

Given  at  Rome,  at  the  Saint  Mary  Majora,  the  2Oth  of 
November,  1687,  of  the  incarnation  of  our  Lord,  and  the  I2th 
of  our  pontificate. 

(Signed)  F.  DATAIRE. 

J.  F.  ALBANI, 

Register  at  the  Secretariate  of  Briefs. 


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UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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